Fog Monitoring Goes Out in the Field

Howdy!

Taro here checking in for an update on our fog monitoring project at Cabrillo National Monument! Woweeeee the fog monitoring project has been moving at a rapid pace. Last post we went over the construction and placement of the fog monitoring stations. This post will be all about taking the stations out into the field!

All of our stations are off-the-grid and completely self-sufficient. They all have solar panels that power the stations, all have weather-proof housing, and data loggers that automatically store data. This way we were not limited by transmission lines, cell service, wifi signals, or harsh weather concerns. They were able to be placed anywhere we wanted.

Some of the target sites are in tricky places, so thinking about the logistics of placement was critical in our success. We decided to go ahead and place the most difficult site first. We loaded the station in an all-terrain golf cart and drove it down the bayside trail.

Next, we carried the station up the hillside and set up the leaf wetness sensors. Finally, we had to think of a code name for this station, we didn’t want to continue calling it Station Number 1. So we came up with Spicy Bunker. The name Spicy Bunker came about because at Cabrillo, there are many relics of the past, including WW2-era bunkers dug out on the hillside. The placement of the Spicy Bunker station happens to be next to one of these bunkers. The spicy component of the name came about because there is a lot of spicebush around the station, which are native plants that make your skin ‘spicy’ when you touch their sap and expose it to the sun.

Next, we installed the rest of our stations throughout the park.

I was very proud to finally see our baby take its first step out in the harsh world!

As always stay tuned for updates on the fog monitoring project.

Next blog we will discuss programming a raspberry pi and preliminary results of fog at Cabrillo!

-Taro