PIE LTER, Hach, OTT RLS measurements of water column depth at 15 minute intervals in the lower Plum Island Sound off the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club pier, Ipswich, MA, year 2020.

Summary

Short name: 

MON-SO-IBYCRLS2020

Abstract: 

Measurements of water column depth at 15 minute intervals in Plum Island Sound at the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club, for year 2020. OTT radar level sensor (RLS) installed  September 20, 2011 out of the water under the concrete pad on the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club pier, Ipswich, MA. RLS was mounted so that continuous year round measurements can be conducted without the concern of ice flows damaging the sensor.

Data set ID: 

562

EML revision ID: 

1
Published on EDI/LTER Data Portal

Citation Suggestion: 

Vallino, J. 2021. PIE LTER, Hach, OTT RLS measurements of water column depth at 15 minute intervals in the lower Plum Island Sound off the Ipswich Bay Yacht Club pier, Ipswich, MA, year 2020. Environmental Data Initiative. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/d24a5ac199704f4be3dc32e34383af75
Categories

Keywords: 

Dates

Date Range: 

Wednesday, January 1, 2020 to Thursday, December 31, 2020

Publication Date: 

Thursday, February 4, 2021
People

Owner/Creator: 

Joe Vallino

Contact: 

Joe Vallino

Project: 

Plum Island Ecosystems Long Term Ecological Research (PIE LTER IV, 2016-2022)
Related
Downloads

Data sources: 

MON-SO-IBYCRLS2020_csv
MON-SO-IBYCRLS2020_xls
Methodology

Methods: 

RLS water level install,IBYC,  9/20/11
Hap Garritt, Sam Kelsey(MBL)
Nichole Halsey, RonanO’Maitu (Hach)

Used Growler boat at high tide to attach 2 x 6 pressure treated wood underneath pier platform between pilings. Wood will be used to attach the RLS. Wood attached with concrete adhesive and concrete screws.
RLS attached to wood with screws and leveled with shingle shims.
RLS cable attached to 2x4 wood which was secured along concrete. Cable attached to eye screws using cable ties.

Measured distances
Pier deck to sediment bottom, deck near logger down to bottom by floating dock directly downstream of logger/deck railing = 22.45 ft or 6.84 meters
RLS height above pier deck = 33 inches or 0.838 meters

IBYC NAVD88 benchmark/pier deck by datalogger = 2.78 meters, as determined by Trimble high precision GPS.

Year NAVD88 (M)
2016  2.790, new pier joists and decking at IBYC , late spring 2015
2010  2.773
2009  2.811
2008  2.779
2007  2.780

Calculated distances
RLS to sediment bottom = 6.84 + .838 = 7.68 meters
RLS relative to NAVD88 = 3.618 meters

The OTT RLS sensor technology is based on impulse radar. Two antennas are enclosed in a compact housing and transmit pulses toward the water surface, through a Teflon face plate. The transmitting antenna transmits short radar pulses in the 24 GHz ISM band. The receiving antenna receives the pulses reflected from the water surface to determine the distance between the face plate of the radar sensor and the water surface. The time delay from transmission to receipt is proportional to the distance between sensor and water surface. Approximately 16 individual measurements are conducted per second and averaged after 20 seconds to minimize wave influences. 

During January and September and some other months of 2020, there were extended periods where the datalogger battery failed and no data was logged. Battery failure seems to coincide with decreased solar  charging due to inclement weather and abnormal high frequency of battery discharge/recharge events. Also the radio telemetry often failed and used excessive battery power causing power failures.

Maintenance: 

Version 01: February 4, 2021, data and metadata updates to comply with importation to DEIMS7 and LTER Data Portal. Used MarcrosExportEML_HTML (working)pie_excel2007_Sep2020.xlsm 9/17/20 1:11 PM for QA/QC to EML 2.1.0.