The location of the data logging station. Sonoma Creek can be seen in the background. The louvered shelter protects the OWL2e from the sun's radiation, wind, rain, thieves and vandals. Within the shelter, the OWL2e is further protected in a NEMA4 rated fiberglass enclosure. This photo shows the shelter before a rain gauge and solar panel were fixed on top.
Tracy Allen, president of EME Systems, and Will Pier, coordinator at Sonoma Ecology Center, install the Unidata water depth sensor into PVC pipe that acts as a stilling well and shelter for the sensor. The depth sensor operates by comparing the pressure around the probe in the water to the air pressure measured up on dry land. There is also an EME Systems TF/30 temperature probe attached to the end of the probe to measure water temperature.
A profile view of the PVC pipe containing the Unidata depth probe. In flood years, the water level of Sonoma Creek has reached the top of the concrete retaining wall that the PVC pipe is mounted onto.
Here is the top of the PVC pipe/depth probe shelter after being capped. Notice the padlock which is used to deter thieves and vandals. The PVC pipe mounting was constructed in excellent fashon by Will Piers of Sonoma Ecology Center.
The mounting for the DNS OBS turbidity probe. OBS stands for "optical back-scatter". The probe works by emitting visible light and then detecting the amount of light that reflects (i.e. scatters) back to it. The more particles there are in the water, the more scattering there is. The OBS probe in this picture is in bubble-wrap that was used to protect it before installation.
Gian Allen, associate scientist at EME Systems, installs the rain gauge and the solar panel onto the top of the louvered shelter.
Gian Allen looks up from wiring to give a cheese to the camera.
Will Piers digging a trench that holds the wiring conduits. The trench ran for about ten feet. Then the conduit (PVC pipes containg the sensor cables) ran above the ground for another 30 feet before reaching the creek.
Rebecca Lawton, a reseacher at Sonoma Ecology Center, admires the completed conduit trench.
Tracy Allen makes the connections from the probes to the OWL. Inside the louvered shelter, there is another EME Systems TF temperature sensor that will give very accurate temperature readings. The shelter keeps direct radiation from the sun off the sensor and thereby gives more realistic readings of the ambient air temperature.
Tracy Allen conferes with Rebecca Lawton about the set-up of the OWL2e data logger. She and her associates will use small, portable computers to download data from the OWL2e.
This photo shows an HP portable computer hooked up to the OWL2e to test its operation before it is left on its own to record data. The fiberglass enclosure is open, displaying the OWL2e motherboard inside. There is a connector outside of this fiberglass enclosure so that during a normal data download the enclosure does not need to be opened.
The completed station with a padlock on the louvered shelter.