Rachelle and Nadine,
 
Anytime Friday afternoon works for me to meet to .. how about 2pm in the GIC?

Thanks,


Andrew

Hey Rachelle,

I'm free Friday afternoon if you and Andrew are free to meet up to work on the (work)plan. I'll either see you tomorrow or text me Friday to let me know what's up.

To respond to the Ariella's thread on the myCourses discussion board (about using the top of Burnside as the location of the CO2 analyzer), Adam is checking out McIntyre as another potential location. And actually, we wouldn't need to build an enclosure for the instrument since there is already one that we could co-opt. Plus, the vapor on the roof is just water vapor so it shouldn't directly impact the measurements from the analyzer although we should check out if water vapor affects the readings in an indirect way.

Gregor and I are testing the effects of different tube lengths & shapes + "wind" speeds tomorrow so we'll let you  guys know how that turns out.

Seeya later,
Nadine

Extra meeting or blog thread?

Hey guys,

So judging from this week's class we should maybe have a quick meeting or really get discussions on the blog going so when we go into class next week we know where everyone else is in their work?

I know that Andrew and I are working on the work plan so we could totally use some inputs from the other  groups?

lets get this going so we can start actually measuring stuff?

Thanks,

Rachelle

Similar studies of Urban Metabolism & CO2

Hey guys, I've found some universities doing research that is very similar to what we want to do (...but on a much larger scale) by using the Picarro to "explore all aspects of carbon exchange, from measuring breath and photosynthesis to measuring emissions and energy consumption" (Boston University -
http://www.bu.edu/today/2009/12/07/sizing-carbon-emissions).

1) Boston University - 30 month study
The researchers at BU have done what we were discussing albeit on a much larger scale and with A LOT MORE funding. For now, they've installed some antennae/tower on the top of a building that measure wind direction, temperature, humidity, light, and carbon levels. There are also webcams to give some insight into traffic patterns and flow. This part of their study seems very similar to what we were thinking of doing.

There is also a second instrument at a forested site in Petersham, Mass. that will be recording CO2 levels simultaneously with the urban site, enabling them to directly compare the 2 sets of CO2 readings for the 30-month study. Unfortunately, we have 28 months less and only 1 instrument!

2) Northwestern University
Urban metabolism of Chicago - No specific information
I've emailed the research group to see if they would be willing to discuss their project (nothing published yet).

These studies are of much larger scope than ours will be (given the differences in the resources available as well as the duration of the study) but they might be able to give us some insight into what we should expect + experimental design ideas.

It might also be useful to email Boston U and NWestern U  to see if they would be willing to discuss preliminary results when we have them :)

Nadine S.

Temperature Issue

from Gregor

Good news everyone :) I just got a reply for the manufacturer. My email first, followed by the response:

Dear Picarro,

My name is Gregor, I'm a post-grad student at McGill university. Our department recently received your CO2 isotope analyzer (G1101-i) and we were about to start work when we noticed that the suggested operating temperature for the machine is 10-35 degrees C. We were wondering how flexible that temperature range is since our study would take us outdoors, potentially down to temperatures around 3-5 degrees C? Is the suggested temperature range a matter of calibration for the device or will it malfunction under temperatures outside that range? Reason why I am asking is because I heard that one of these machines is being taken down to Antarctica.

and the response:

Hi Gregor,

You can probably use it that low, but we don't guarantee the specs. The pump and hard drive may have a hard time starting up when it's that cold, but no real worries -- we do have analyzers all over the world and I'm sure people have done this. We do test them down to about 5C for startup and generally it's not a problem, but I'd recommend keeping them running when it gets that cold to avoid startup issues. 

Cheers,

-Aaron  


So yeah .... it's doable, as long as we don't start it up to often in the cold. So if we keep it running for longer periods of time ... the machine can stay outdoors. (keep in mind rain)

work hard ;)
-g

fsfdfdg

blog

hey look
we have a blog!
we can use this to blog about things....project related
and we can use it to attempt to brainstorm before next class :)
lets get 'er done!