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<br />A manual 35 mm camera provided slides of the cloud cover <br />over the Rim east of the rawinsonde site. Photographs were <br />taken by the rawinsonde crew looking toward Happy Jack and <br />Payson near the rawinsonde release times. <br /> <br />2.4.9 <br /> <br />Pibal Observations <br /> <br />Pilot balloons (Pibals) were periodically released and <br />optically tracked from the Happy Jack site to obtain wind <br />speed and direction profiles. NAWC installed a small shelter <br />at the site which had folding roof sections that were opened <br />at launch time. Prior to release, the balloons were inflated <br />inside the shelter with helium to provide a precise amount <br />of free lift. The free lift desired was an ascent rate of <br />550 feet per minute. Following the balloon release the operator <br />optically tracked the balloon using a theodolite. There were <br />79 pibal releases during the field program. Since they were <br />visually tracke~, they could only be followed until they disap- <br />peared into a cloud or behind a tree. If vision was unimpaired <br />the balloon was tracked for 20 minutes at which time it was <br />11,000 feet above ground level. <br /> <br />2.4.10 <br /> <br />Automatic Weather Recording Stations <br /> <br />Automatic weather recording stations were utilized at <br />the Happy Jack site to record and process data from a variety <br />of meteorological sensors. The stations, known as PROBE units, <br />utilized Handar DCP (Data Collection Platform) to sample, <br />average, and temporarily store the data. Each hour, the stations <br />transmitted the stored information to the Denver Federal Center <br />by satellite relay. The data were then transferred to the <br />Montrose office computer for processing. One station was <br /> <br />2-17 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />J <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />I <br />t <br />I <br />J <br />I <br />I <br />( <br />