I took a few pictures of my sites and instruments as I did my daily site visits.

This is a picture of the Shell Cut air monitoring station with my district vehicle in front. On top of the tower are the meteorological instruments while the shelter houses the PM-10 (Particulate Matter less than ten microns, i.e. dust) monitoring instrument along with the datalogger.

The meteorological instrument known as an anemometer measures wind speed and direction. It's the propeller and vain deal on top of the tower. There is a temperature probe up there too.

PM-10 is measured with an instrument called the TEOM (Tapered Element Oscillating Microbalance). Air is pulled through the inlet which sorts out the particles larger than ten microns and then down through a small filter which oscillates with a specific amount of energy. The frequency of the oscillation diminishes as the filter loads with PM-10 and the change in frequency is used to determine the mass accumulated on the filter. Here's a picture of the inlet.

The site is named Shell Cut becaue there is a small wash nearby which cuts through a soil layer thick with shells. Here's a couple of pics.

That's all for today. Talk to you tomorrow!