1. DEC10-06: F ROZEN P RECIPITATION D ETECTION S YSTEM FOR SODAR S YSTEMS by Ashor Chirackal, Imran Butt, Michelle Tan & Luke Lehman Advisor: Prof. Tim Bigelow Client: Josh Underwood: Atmospheric Systems Corporation

2. P ROJECT P LAN Optimizing the number of times the heater is turned on to reduce power consumption by designing a more efficient and accurate method to detect the conditions in which the SODAR equipment needs to use the heater. The necessary conditions and requirements are outlined below: Able to tell the difference of snow and ice accumulation on the reflector plate. Able to detect powdery snow that distorts the SODAR readings and needs to be melted. Turn heater off after snow has melted.

3. C ONCEPT S KETCH Piezoelectric sensors plates Heater Temperature Sensor SODAR speakers

4. D ESIGN B LOCK D IAGRAM Amplifier Notch Filter Amplifier Low-pass Filter Sample/Hold Temperature Sensor Microprocessor SODAR Piezoelectric films

5. T EST P LAN Completed Obtain several piezoelectric sensor applicable to the project Small level testing the piezoelectric sensor characteristics to determine the best option Build circuit components(20%) Test piezoelectric sensors under specific conditions(50%) Future Model circuit components Obtain microcontroller and programming the microcontroller Integrate components High level testing using the completed design

6. H ARDWARE / S OFTWARE Piezoelectric sensor Detects sound waves emitted from the SODAR Minimal power consumption Differentiate amplitudes of clear reflector versus snow covered reflector Amplifier Convert small piezo signal to usable level(0-5V) Filters Attenuate signal outside 2-5kHz Peak Detector Samples and holds values produced by piezo films for processing Microcontroller collect and process data from the temperature sensor and the detector (piezoelectric sensors) determine whether the heater should be turned on or off based on the data collected

7. M ODELING BUFFERED PEAK DETECTOR Input from piezo amplifier/filter Output to microcontroller LM 741

8. B UILDING BUFFERED PEAK DETECTOR

9. T ESTING P IEZO FILMS

10. With a 3.5k Hz input and peak detection

11. Q UESTIONS