<br />basin. You can also see a satellite there. Right now I
<br />will stick to the data collection platform itself. This
<br />is a site in Golden, Colorado just downstream from
<br />the Coors Brewery, another beneficial use of the water
<br />in the basin. On top of the gauge house there is a
<br />tipping bucket rain gauge and antenna pointed to.
<br />wards a stationery satellite.
<br />
<br />This might be a little bit more familiar site. This is
<br />at Nebraska City. In the gauge house there is a variety
<br />of equipment. The most exciting part, at least for the
<br />water control managers, is this little yellow box. It
<br />doesn't look very exciting, it's only 12 x 12 x 5 inches
<br />deep, but it's really a little microcomputer. One part
<br />of that device sends the signal out and the other part
<br />has intelligence that accepts computer programming.
<br />The user of the system can set this devise up to collect
<br />data as often as he wants. Ours are set up in two modes
<br />to collect data every few minutes, but only send the
<br />values in a self-time mode on one channel every four
<br />hours. We get a one minute period, every four hours,
<br />to send this information back. So if there's not much
<br />going on, our data can be as old as four hours. The
<br />other side of the platform, and kind of an exciting side,
<br />is the event driven side which can actually send in-
<br />formation on a different channel; but the user can
<br />program in, such as a stage rise of one foot. that would
<br />cause data to he sent immediately. Therefore, during
<br />times when the river is changing rapidly, you can get
<br />information as often as every two minutes from the
<br />site. The only thing is, the sites compete for each other
<br />and there can be collisions and we can lose a little
<br />information on that channel. That's about as detailed
<br />as I want to get. Most of the data collection platforms
<br />are located below Gavins Point along the major tri-
<br />butaries primarily in the Kansas City District because
<br />of additional rainfall occurring down there. Others oc-
<br />cur in the Denver area, because of the f1ashf1ood po-
<br />tential, and at the major hot spots in the hasin as far
<br />as problems go, and other major tributaries. Also, even
<br />though we say the system has 219 sites, we have added
<br />a few sites as we discovered new critical areas that we
<br />needed to monitor.
<br />
<br />The second component in the system are the sat-
<br />ellites themselves. They are managed by the National
<br />Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. One of
<br />their satellites failed last year when it was launched
<br />on one of the Delta rockets they were having so much
<br />trouble with. It was kind of a critical piece, but bas-
<br />ically, the system consists of three satellites. An east
<br />and a west satellite, we use the west, and a central
<br />satellite that's a spare. The only function of that sat-
<br />ellite is to increase the signal strength and send it back
<br />
<br />38
<br />
<br />down. It also serves as a constant point at which all
<br />the field sites can be pointed. That's all I would like
<br />to discuss about the satellite.
<br />
<br />The third component in the system is a direct read-
<br />out ground station or a receiving station. The one here
<br />is located on the downtown Omaha Federal Building.
<br />The dish is a little bigger and heavier duty than some
<br />you see. It is on top of the downtown Omaha Federal
<br />Building. These are what's called demodulators. They
<br />actually watch the various channels the information
<br />comes in on. I didn't allude to it earlier, but we also
<br />monitor channels from a similar system the State of
<br />Colorado has, and we also collect information from
<br />the Bureau of Reclamation sites and use that in our
<br />day-to-day operations as well.-
<br />
<br />Once the data hits the satellite, it can be shared hy
<br />anyone as long as you know what's being sent. So there
<br />is a lot of coordination that goes along there as far as
<br />the site and the parameters that are measured at the
<br />site. All this information goes into a computer system
<br />located there. Software in the computer system is
<br />state-of-the-art. It checks the data as far as being rea-
<br />sonable. After it checks the data it has thresholds that
<br />the users can set so you could actually get a warning
<br />call at work or at home if certain values are exceeded.
<br />It also has a warning capability. We first used it for
<br />some least tern tests last summer, and it worked quite
<br />well. The other thing that happens at the ground sta-
<br />tion is all our information is stored there. It is also
<br />sent to a larger computer located at Portland, Oregon
<br />operated by the Corps of Engineers' Pacific Division.
<br />That's where all our modeling is really performed, not
<br />locally in the smaller computer.
<br />
<br />Because the information is so vital to our operation,
<br />we also provide a backup system. The Bureau of Rec-
<br />lamation in Boise, Idaho, which is depicted in the
<br />lower left hand corner, collects all the same infor-
<br />mation and also sends it on to the mainframe or large
<br />computer located in Portland, Oregon. So even if our
<br />site is down, the information is still getting to the main
<br />computer where we can run simulation models.
<br />
<br />The type of data we need to have and collect through
<br />this system-water levels, stage and elevation, precip-
<br />itation, rainfall and snow, air and water temperature,
<br />wind speed and direction, water quality, pH, dissolved
<br />oxygen, specific conductants-there are other param-
<br />eters we would like to have, but the sensors don't lend
<br />themselves to the easy collection of that data. The new,
<br />hot area of interest is a geotechnical area where sen-
<br />sors inside the dam and various other devises are used
<br />
|