June 5-11, 2017
Monday through Wednesday this week, we calibrated the infiltration instruments we will be using out in the field in the following weeks. The instrument set-up includes six Lolly soil moisture sensors. We calibrated each sensor starting at saturated conditions and recorded the mass of water as it infiltrated out of the chamber. Next, the data from the Lolly sensor was downloaded and we were able to correspond the output count values to our recorded mass of water. Based on our calibration, we will be able to correlate the Lolly sensor’s count values with soil moisture in a field setting. We also helped with some of the wiring for other instruments we will be using in the upcoming weeks.
The Lolly soil moisture sensor set-up and calibration
On Thursday, we took a train to Děčín, Czech Republic for a scientific computing workshop. Thursday afternoon we listened to several presentations and we met CTU faculty and students from a variety of research areas. We ate at a local Czech restaurant for dinner. Then, walked around Děčín and enjoyed the city.
On Friday, each of us presented our previous research at the workshop. Alisha went first and her presentation was titled “Chemical analysis of produced water”. Catie’s presentation title was “Integration of hydrogeophysical datasets for improved water resource management in irrigated systems”. Jessica presented “Effects of replacement reactions on multi-scale porosity” and Zablon presented “Evaluating the impact of grassland conversions to forest on groundwater recharge in the Nebraska Sand Hills”. Presentations lasted until the end of the day, where we concluded the workshop with a group photo near the dormitories where we stayed.
Zablon presenting his past research at the scientific computing workshop.
Over the weekend, Alisha stayed in Děčín Saturday and hiked 22 km with other people who had attended the conference. Catie, Jessica and Zablon traveled back to Prague to enjoy some sight-seeing and relaxing before doing fieldwork the next two weeks.