General Information

Serial #

1060

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

Snow depth sensor

Patents

N/A

General Description

metal casing and parts/ synthetic parts

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

33.3 cm

Width

18.3 cm

Height

19.5 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Meteorology

Category

Precipitation amount, rate & duration measurement

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Campbell

Country

Canada

State/Province

Alberta

City

Edmonton

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

late 1980's; this instrument was apparently in use for 15 years (Ref. 6)

Canada

A snow measuring instrument of a type designed and used by the Meteorological Service of Canada to gather snow depth data in Canada. Part of a large collection of meteorological instruments acquired from the Meteorological Service of Canada (previously Atmospheric Environment Service) by the CSTM since 1967. MSC is the government agency responsible for collecting and disseminating meteorological data and forecasts in Canada. It was founded in 1871 in Toronto where it is still headquartered. The MSC was originally on the University of Toronto downtown campus but moved to Downsview in 1971 on land owned by UofT. The headquarters houses laboratories, research facilities and calibration and instrument maintenance facilities (now largely contracted out).

Function

An instrument used to measure the depth of fallen snow by using a sonic wave to measure the distance between the instrument and the snow surface.

Technical

A Campbell Scientific snow depth sensor. This CSMAL sonically measures the distance to a snow surface then corrects for temperature in order to compute the depth of snow from the beginning of the season. It was originally designed by AES and later built and sold by Campbell Scientific (CS). In 1990 CS replaced it with the less expensive UDG01 which did not include the temperature sensor (Ref. 1). According to the AES and CS manuals (Refs. 2-3), the primary components of the depth sensor are a Polaroid ultrasonic transducer and a Texas Instrument ranging module. Together they ‘ranged' a target by bouncing an ultrasonic wave, or series of pulses, off the surface and listening for the return echo. The instrument also contained a National Semiconductor solid sate temperature sensor temperature sensor to measure the ambient temperature because the speed of sound in air varies with the air temperature. In operation, the sensor would be mounted on a horizontal cross arm of a meteorological tower.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

black lettering on grey label on top reads 'CSMAL [logo?]/ CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC/ MANUFACTURING ALBERTA LTD./ SERIAL #1060'/ black lettering on white label on top reads '0001-0436/ [bar code] AES/ *5122-00082* 5122/ SONIC SNOW DEPTH SENSORS'/ black lettering on white label on top reads 'CS [logo]/ CAMPBELL SCIENTIFIC/ (C)/ EXTENDED/ TEMP'

Missing

appears complete

Finish

brushed grey metal casing/ metallic temperature sensor with white synthetic mount/ white painted metal temperature sensor housing with black painted interior/ grey and black cable/ white synthetic and plated metal ranging unit

Decoration

N/A