31
Dec
23 |
Last day of the year, and also last Dobson measurements. As the sun
was so low, and the sky cloudy and hazy, the channel (1/2)
measurements are bad. So for this time only I used the channel (2/3)
data, which are generally higher than the combined readings, and
adjusted by dividing by 1.07122.
During the next year a new crew (Raoul Tholl, Marco Goffinet)
will take over the management of meteoLCD, and I will step down.
I managed meteoLCD since 1996 (28 years), so sure there are some
regrets, but also a lot of suspense to see how the new crew will
change meteoLCD to fit their wishes and preferences. I wish them
good luck! |
16
Dec
23 |
1.
I uploaded to the "papers" section two large publications, where I
have been author, co-author or editor:
Comptes Rendus du
Colloque International de Karstologie (1994) and
The Moestroff Cave
(1997), what is the final publication of the big Phymoes
research project on cave climatology.
2.
M. Gaston KAYSER, a retired Luxembourg nuclear engineer
living in France, passed away the 8th December 2023, aged 89. We
were in discussions via email since several months. and he deplored
the German incomprehensible and foolish destruction of their nuclear
infrastructure, putting since 2006 approx. 1300 TWh "carbon-free"
electricity into the waste bin...Read his last contribution (in
French)
here. It is always very sad when a knowledgeable scientist
leaves us definitively. |
01
Dec
23 |
1. Uploaded November 2023
data into data archive.
2. The scheduling tasks of the Win7e computer meteo02 have been
simplified by executing every 30 minutes a single batch file
instead of 5 different tasks. Thx to Florence Massen and Ronny Heinz
for helping out! |
21
Nov
23 |
The Win7e meteo02 computer now runs ok since 00:00. I had to
abandon the old faithful Automate (Unisyn) scheduler, as it worked
unreliably under Win7e. There also was a problem with the two
Delta-T utilities to download from the datalogger and convert to
.txt format (they did not close their windows, which blocked the
next call). This has been solved by a powershell call. Automate is
now replaced by the inbuilt Task Scheduler. |
19
Nov
23 |
1. Migration of last XPe computer to a Win7e thin client (HP
T610). To solve the ftp client problem, I installed the Ncftp suite,
and use "ncftpput ...." in the command-line to transfer the
half-hour data to our Lubuntu machine (also a T610), which makes all
the heavy stuff. Starting 13:00 UTC today, everything seems ok
now...
2. The DAVIS Backup computer was offline, as I had switched off the
Weatherlink software by mistake...Sorry! |
18
Nov
23 |
I am replacing the last HP Thin Client running XPe with a
newer model (HP T610) running Win7e. This is the computer driving
the datalogger. There is an expected problem with the ftp client, so
probably some disruption for a day... |
01
Nov
23 |
Upload of the October oct23.dat data file to the data archive. |
06
Oct
23 |
1. The computer driving the DAVIS Backup station was dead and
unresponsive. probably since July 2023.
Replaced by a spare model--> ok since ca. 07:30 UTC
2. WBGT pump definitively shut down for this season |
04
Oct
23 |
1.
Upload of the September sep23.dat data file to the data archive.
2. Stopped WBGT heatstress measurements until next year. The link on
the pictures show drybulb, globe and very soon the not wetted wick
temperature (should be very close to dry bulb temp.) |
01
Sep
23 |
1. Upload of the August aug23.dat data file to the data archive.
2. Sunshine display of vintage Haenni sensor disabled. |
15
Aug
23 |
Starting 14 August, and until the end of the month, Raoul Tholl will
make the TOC Dobson measurements using the "standard" Microtops II.
Mike Zimmer will take over at the Start of September with the older
model. |
05
Aug
23 |
I added on the first page a link to the
temperature.global
site, which computes the Earth's temperature from more than 68000
weatherstations, every hour. These are "as is" not modified,
massaged or otherwise "politically consensus" changed measurement
data. |
01
Aug
23 |
1. Upload of the July jul23.dat
data file to the data archive.
2. Raoul Tholl will take over the Dobson TOC measurements until end
of August 2023. He will use the Microtops instrument that I usually
use. |
28
Jul
23 |
The DOBSON total ozone column measurements will stop from 26th July
to end of August 2023. They will resume in September. |
22
Jul
23 |
Sunshine equipement restarted at 11:55. Thx to Gilles Massen for
helping out. There remain some problems with resource-hogg, more
work on these later.
The totals (in hours) should be ignored, except that over a day
(with some caution!) |
19
Jul
23 |
The Sunshine equipment is not working... probably a Raspberry Pi
problem. |
12
Jul
23 |
I had to change the batteries of the UPS which drives our main rack
with datalogger, power supplies and many oher stuff. The datalogger
and ancillary scripts were upset after that, and I could solve the
mess only by downloading all data, stopping and restarting the
logger with an empty memory. Since about 14:40 UTC thinks seem to be
again on track... Sadly data from 08:30 to 14:00 UTC have been lost. |
09
Jul
23 |
We had a serious short-lived storm today. Look at the
BLOG for some videos and pictures. |
07
Jul
23 |
I built a local "Mirror" web-server located in the meteoLCD's
room, to host a copy of the live data page today_01.html. A
link is on top of the today_01.html page.
The system runs on a turnkeylinux-lamp Debian based
distribution, with Apache2 as web server and vsftpd server for local
downloads. Every-time something is ftp'd to our Restena web site,
the same items are also sent to this mirror server. https is
enabled. There still may be some rough corners and/or some bugs in
the many configuration files. As meteoLCD is very resource
conscious, the mirror system runs on an old disused HP machine (in
64 bit mode).
This mirror server should help out in the case that the ftp's to
Restena go bust. |
06
Jul
23 |
The "normal" ftp's are running again, and I manually corrected today
two outlier lines in the 7days.dat file that corrupted the 7days
("previous") graphs. |
04
Jul
23 |
Our ftp problem is still not solved, even by serious contacts with
our provider/hoster Restena and its specialists. There are possibly
several problems in the game: tight security policies at Restena,
flaky DMZ port here at a switch, or hardware problem on the Linux
machine... We will do our best to find a remedy. The normal
operation has just resumed now (14:46 UTC). |
03
Jul
23 |
Trying to solve the ftp problem (which seems due to an overload of
the ftp server's lomots), I will shut down the SUNSHINE transfers
for a day or two... just to see what happens... |
02
Jul
23 |
The mysterious ftp problem of 28th June showed up again after 12:00
UTC. No ftp possible for the moment, that means no update to the
data. I informed the officials on this mysterious problem... |
01
Jul
23 |
Upload of the June jun23.dat
data file to the data archive. |
28
Jun
23 |
We have a severe network problem since 14:30 UZC... no more
data updates for the moment...
Problem disappeared at 20:00...mysterious! |
21
Jun
23 |
The Sunshine window was not updated for a couple of days... the RPi
did not have an automatic restart of the Python code. I added a
script called by crontab @reboot. So it is working again since 08:13
UTC |
14
Jun
23 |
Samuel DIAS and Noé LINSTER, the students who made the "Sunshine
Project" (see the News from 22 March) received a special
price at the LCD session celebrating the lycées^s "élèves méritants"
(i.e. the students having the most merits due to their work with
ancillary projects). We are proud of them!
The picture shows from left to right Marcel Kramer (director of the
LCD), Samuel Dias, Noé Linster and their tutor Marco Goffinet
(physics prof.). |
12
Jun
23 |
WBGT problem "repaired"... it was a silly one: the tube bringing
distilled water to the wet sensor had broken loose... possibly
a birds work! Fixed at 06:40 UTC. |
10
Jun
23 |
The WBGT equipment has a problem since over a week: it seems that
the wet bulb sensor is running dry. I will look after this problem
next Monday. |
04
Jun
23 |
Diekirch TV, the communications channel of the City of Diekirch,
made a short report on meteoLCD. Cameraman Xavier Deschamps
made the video and the shots, and as usual for meteo reports,
weather was awful, with rain pouring down without any interruption.
Sandie Lahure, the communications manager of the town of
Diekirch, is the presenter. There are two glitches (for instance
website is meteo.lcd.lu not www.meteo.lcd.lu), but overall we can be
satisfied with this short presentation. Click here for the
meteoLCD extract
of the full video. |
03
Jun
23 |
There was a fatal disruption in the afternoon of 01/06. Things are
again ok today starting 13:00 UTC (I had to restart the Linux
machine). No data lost due to our datalogger strategy. |
01
May
23 |
Upload of the May may23.dat
data file to the data archive. |
25
May
23 |
I transfered a lot of the info's given on the start page of our web
site to the "Globalwanrming Sceptic" page, so that the list on the
main page becomes again much shorter. Nothing has been deleted, all
files are via the small icon with the red lightning flash or via the
link
https://meteo.lcd.lu/globalwarming/index.html. This page (and
sub-chapters) are a treasure of information (which is often
difficult to find) on climate and energy problesm, |
17
May
23 |
Our web-site host went down for a couple of hours
yesterday...Everything ok again, no data lost. |
16
May
23 |
1. Even if the time is far from warm, I started the WBGT
system today at ~12:00 UTC.
2. We had a few thunderstorms the 14th May, but our Boltek LD-350
system did not register anything...
There seems no software problem, but a possible antenna or LD-350
box problem. I checked the antenna today, using as a noise generator
a vintage mini-TV with a CRT (one also may use a CRT-type computer
monitor, see left picture): the noise was registered, and the Astrogenics software interpreted the signals as lightning strokes..
so I see no apparent fault here. Let's wait for the next real storm!
  |
04
May
23 |
Attention: there is a problem
with the COM1 port of one of the main computers... no new data since
about 14:00. I will try a repair tomorrow... |
01
May
23 |
1. Upload of the April apr23.dat
data file to the data archive.
2. On the DOBSON (Total Ozone Column) page, I have added a
link to a
.xls file which compares the same day TOC measurements of
the year as made at Diekirch with those published on the Uccle RMI
web site. Uccle has often missing days, and it is not sure if the
published Uccle data correspond to both Zenith Sky (ZS) and Direct
Sky (DS) readings, or only to DS readings, as those made by us at
meteoLCD; DS readings need visible sunshine!
This .xls file will be manually updated at irregular intervals.3.
There was a problem with the SUNSHINE uploads. The problem was
probably not caused by the RPi, but in updating/upgrading it I
managed to kill the SD card :-(( I made a new from a backup
image, that as usual, needed some updates. Everything seems working
fine again (>14:00 UTC).
Be aware that the SUNSHINE is just that: a student project
using data from a vintage instrument. So please do not expect 100%
faultless working, as something can always go wrong along the line
of old instrument readings, Raspberry Pi working/programming and
transfer to the webserver! |
02
Apr
23 |
Upload of the March mar23.dat
data file to the data archive. |
25
Mar
23 |
The sunshine display is now working. The screen is automatically
updated every minute. I had to stop/restart the Raspberry Pi several
times while working on the SD card. Stable situation now since today
15:30 UTC. Attention: the sunshine image is created every 2
minutes, so it does not represent a instantaneously situation! |
24
Mar
23 |
The inlet filter of the Cairsens O3&NO2 sensor has been replaced
today. These filters have a life-span of about 4 months, so they
need regular replacements. |
23
Mar
23 |
I built an enclosure for the "sunshine RPi" and tried to install
everything today; several scripts had to be written, crontabs
modified etc.... The today_01.html
page has been updated and rearranged slightly to make room for the
Sunshine picture, which is updated every 2 minutes. Some teething
problems will certainly show up... so thx for your patience! |
22
Mar
23 |
Samuel DIAS and Noé LINSTER are two senior students of
our last year. They started in 2022 to create a sunshine logger
fetching the signal of our vintage Haenni Solar sensor, converting
them to a picture and storing away in a database. All this using a
Raspberry Pi4 they programmed in Python. Their responsible teacher
was Prof. Marco Goffinet, who teaches physics at the LCD. We made a
quick test, which showed everything working. Some pictures and more
text asap....
 |
11
Mar
23 |
1.
The update of the
TRENDS section has been finished. The comparison with the
Beidweiler readings remains to be done, if the EU database becomes
available again.
2. The open-access website "Science
of Climate Change" from Norway has published a "vintage"
paper that I wrote in 2007 with the late Hans-Georg Beck and two
other co-authors on the variations of atmospheric CO2 concentration
with latitude (and other factors). Click
here. |
01
Mar
23 |
Upload of the February feb23.dat
data file to the data archive. |
10
Feb
23 |
233 DU... a spectacular low in TOC (total ozone
concentration) for this month measured today (see
here).
Before spinning into panic, see the Uccle plot of last year TOC's,
and notice how fast the changes often are! |
03
Feb
23 |
Work on all our solar sensors (replacement of dessicant in UVA, UVB,
CM21 and CMP11); as they had to be taken off-line for a short time,
there are down-peaks in some of the plots. |
01
Feb
22 |
1. Upload of the January jan23.dat
data file to the data archive.
2. The trends
analysis of the 2022 data is nearly done; there remains an
analysis of the PM measurements to be done. Our TOC (total ozone
column) data are again excellent, compared to those made at Uccle by
vastly more expensive instruments! Many thx to Mike for helping with
the daily measurements. |
11
Jan
23 |
The 2022_only.xls file
with all the readings, daily's and monthly's values at Diekirch, and
also several important monthly values from the Meteolux station at
Findel airport, has been uploaded into the data archive. The
meteoLCDstats
file also has been updated to include all stats from 1998 to 2022.
Work on the TRENDS section will start asap. |
01
Jan
23 |
1.
Our old faithful Delta_T datalogger does not store the year count in its
data-time column, so there usually is a mess with the Gnuplot 7-days
plots during the first week (but not with the "today" plots). 2.
Look here for an
overplot of our
2022 Total Ozone Column measurements with those made at
UCCLE by the RMI. As usual ours not too bad, no reason to be
ashamed of :-))!
|
