Week 5 Log

June 29th - July 2nd

I spent the majority of this week on the Solar Radiometer project. I completed the Solar Radiometer circuit, but spent a significant amount of time troubleshooting the circuit. Eventually, I determined that the operational amplifier had burnt out. I also began fabricating the housing unit for the Solar Radiometer.

Above is my completed Solar Radiometer circuit.

Above is a partially completed housing unit for the Solar Radiometer.

I also finished a MATLAB program to find locations in the sky 90 degrees from the sun. The program asks the user for the current azimuth and elevation of the sun, then asks for an azimuth describing the direction the measurement will be taken. The program outputs an elevation corresponding to the azimuth the user entered giving a location 90 degrees from the sun. Below is a vector plot illustrating the functionality of the program.

On Friday, I resumed measurements for the Spectro-Polarimeter project. Conditions were particularly hazy due to forest fire smoke from neighboring states. I expect this will impact the experiments by reducing the overall polarization of skylight. With more aerosols in the atmosphere (such as smoke) skylight scattering is increased and the degree of linear polarization is decreased. My analysis regarding this expectation will be completed in the coming weeks.