Valley Circulation Experiment at HJ Andrews Forest started

Research: The VALey Circulation EXperiment (VALCEX) at the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest started on October 15 as a precampaign to next year's Advanced Resolution Canopy FLow Observations (ARCFLO) 2012 experiment in Watershed 1 funded by the NSF Career grant. The objective of the precampaign is to gain a better understanding of the airflow in the larger HJA valley, particularly its diurnal dynamics, vertical structure, and cold-air drainage and pooling. 

The flows in the forested valley are extremely weak year-round and are strongly influenced by the topography. The bmM group installed two acoustic profilers (Sodars) and two sonic anemometers to measure height-dependent wind speed, wind direction, and turbulence from 7 m to approximately 400 m above the valley floor in high temporal resolution. Jerilyn Walley from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, WA will do the data analysis as her MS research project.(Picture left) The VALCEX team: Jerilyn Walley, Evan Hayduk, Chris Thomas, John Moreau (f.l.t.r). (Picture right) Jerilyn installing a sonic anemometer to measure wind speed and direction.