Welcome to the GEOS 440, Environmental Sensing, webpage for the Fall 2020 semester.


Above: Sonic anemometers installed on the GLEES AmeriFlux scaffold in the Medicine Bow National Forest of southeastern Wyoming. Photo taken by Morgan Heim and provided by Bill Massman and John Frank, US Forest Service.

Course Description: This upper division course for undergraduate environmental science majors at Chico State examines how sensors and instruments quantify the world around us. We will focus on atmospheric measurements of temperature, pressure, radiation, humidity, and wind. This semester, due to COVID-19, we are choosing not to meet in-person for lecture or lab. As an alternative to the normal hands-on work of building and using Arduinos, students will learn about digital data, data and error analysis, and scientific programming in on-line labs using Interactive Data Language (IDL). The book we will use is Meteorological Measurements and Instrumentation by R. Giles Harrison and we may refer to parts of Measurements and their Uncertainties by Ifan Hughes and Thomas Hase.

Fall 2020 On-line Lectures by Zoom: MW, 11:00 - 11:50 AM.
Fall 2020 On-line Labs by Zoom: Section 1: Tues. 2:00 - 4:50 PM. Section 2: Thurs. 2:00 - 4:50 PM.
Office hours: Mondays from 9-11 AM or by appointment. Please contact me to schedule.

Mon., Aug. 24: Lecture: Review syllabus and plans for the semester. Begin discussing types of computers and components.
Tues. & Thurs., Aug 23 & 27: Lab 1: Install and license Interactive Data Language (IDL).
Weds., Aug. 26: Lecture: Complete computer hardware and discuss software: operating systems, applications, programming languages.
Mon., Aug. 31: Lecture: Begin discussion of data with focus on binary versus decimal, bits, integers, and ASCII.
Tues. & Thurs., Sept. 1 & 3: Lab 2: Begin using IDL. Write program to evaluate and graph an analytic expression: the barometric law.
Weds., Sept. 2: Lecture: Begin temperature and thermometry. Liquid-in-glass thermometers.
Mon., Sept., 7: Labor day. No classes.
Tues. & Thurs., Sept. 8 & 10: Lab 3: Complete barometric law plot and make the US standard atmosphere temperature profile plot.
Weds., Sept. 9: Lecture: use of liquid-in-glass thermometers and shelters for surface air temperature measurements.
Mon., Sept., 14: Lecture: Begin Chapter 2: Principles of Measurement and Instrumentation. Also discussion of A to D converters.
Tues. & Thurs., Sept. 15 & 17: Lab 4: reading ASCII files and plotting NOAA global mean surface temperatures since 1880.
Weds., Sept. 16: Lecture: Continue Chapter 2: characterizing instrument performance, accuracy versus precision.
Fri., Sept. 18: Quiz 1 on first three weeks: 8/24 - 9/10.
Mon., Sept., 21: Lecture: Electronic temperature sensors: thermistors, diode-based sensors, and thermocouples.
Tues. & Thurs., Sept. 22 & 24: Lab 5: Reading and plotting NOAA Mauna Loa CO2 data in IDL.
Weds., Sept. 23: Lecture: Metal RTDs, shielding of temperature sensors, and radiation errors.
Mon., Sept., 28: Lecture: a closer look at accuracy: error and uncertainty. Section 2.3.
Tues. & Thurs., Sept. 29 & Oct. 1: Lab 6: random numbers, first and second moments, histograms, and Gaussian functions.
Weds., Sept. 30: Lecture: Mean, variance, standard deviation, standard error, accuracy, precision, and calibration.
Fri., Oct. 2: Quiz 2 on material from 9/14 - 9/23.
Mon., Oct. 5: Lecture: Section 2.2.1: Response to a step change, exponential time constant.
Tues. & Thurs., Oct. 6 & 8: Lab 7: Best fit straight line and exponential curve to noisy data.
Weds., Oct. 7: Lecture: Response to an oscillation (2.2.2). Then some notes on static calibrations, covariance, and correlation.
Mon., Oct. 12: Lecture: Begin radiation (Chapter 9). Discussion of Planck functions as density distribution functions.
Tues. & Thurs., Oct. 13 & 15: Lab 8: Plotting Figs. 1 and 2 in Soffer & Lynch (1999).
Weds., Oct. 14: Lecture: differential nature of Planck functions, Stefan-Boltzmann law, and radiation as a form of energy.
Mon., Oct. 19: Lecture: Methods of measuring radiation with emphasis on solar radiation and pyranometers.
Tues. & Thurs., Oct. 20 & 22: Lab 9: Two- and three-dimensional arrays, loops, and images.
Weds., Oct. 14: Lecture: Broadband and spectrally resolved albedo; terrestrial radiation, pyrgeometers, emissivity.
Mon., Oct. 26: Lecture: Finish radiation with emphasis on emissivity. Then begin humidity (Chapter 6).
Tues. & Thurs., Oct. 20 & 22: Lab 10: Plotting saturation vapor pressure over liquid water and ice.
Weds., Oct. 28: Lecture: Continue humidity (water vapor): RH, dew point, wet & dry bulb, and electronic sensors.
Fri., Oct. 30: Quiz 3 on radiation (10/12 - 10/26).
Mon., Nov. 2: Lecture: Reflections on measurements and calibrations; conclude humidity and begin atmospheric pressure.
Tues. & Thurs., Nov. 3 & 5: Lab 11: Use of text editors; if-then-else and where function in IDL; and Julian date. Plot T and Td time series.
Weds., Nov. 4: Lecture: Barometers: liquid, aneroid, diaphragm, hypsometer, vibrating cylinder. Also static vs dynamic P and P-ports.
Fri., Nov. 6: Quiz 4 on humidity (10/26 - 11/2).
Mon., Nov. 9: Begin Chapter 8 on wind and wind sensing. Today: Wind near the surface of the earth and turbulence.
Tues. & Thurs., Nov. 10 & 12: Lab 12: Eddy covariance. Vertical fluxes of sensible heat, CO2, and water over a large field of vegetation.
Weds., Nov.11: Veteran's Day: No classes.
Mon., Nov. 16: In situ wind sensing technologies: plate, pressure (pitot) tube, and cup anemometers.
Tues. & Thurs., Nov. 17 & 19: Writing and reading custom ASCII and binary data files. Then, reading a NetCDF data file.
Weds., Nov. 18: Wind sensing: wind vanes, propellor anemometers, aerovanes, hot-wires, and sonic anemometers.
Fri., Nov. 20: Quiz 5 on pressure (barometers) and wind sensing
Mon., Nov. 23: Thanksgiving week. No classes.
Tues. & Thurs., Nov. 24 & 26: Thanksgiving week. No classes.
Weds., Nov. 25: Thanksgiving week. No classes.
Mon., Nov. 30: Review of expectations for student term project presentations.
Tues. & Thurs., Dec. 1 & 3: Student term presentations
Weds., Dec. 2: Student term presentations
Mon., Dec: 7 Student term presentations
Tues. & Thurs., Dec. 8 & 10: Student term presentations
Weds., Dec. 9: Student term presentations
Mon. - Fri., Dec: 14 - 18: Final exam week.

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