TECHNOLOGY
ne rainy morning last
December, John James
stood outside holding a
big white balloon, which
looked like a perfect
target for a lightning
strike. Next to him, Carly Ellis, a field
researcher with the UC San Diego
Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
asked a group of spectators if they were
ready. Then, all together, they counted
down: “Five, four, three, two, one.”
Not a second later, James, wa-
ter operations projects manager for
the Yuba Water Agency, released the
balloon. “Whew, that went fast!” said
an onlooker as the balloon shot up,
snatched by the winds, and f lew into
gray clouds, the attached sensor f lap-
ping like a tail.
After a minute or so, the balloon
disappeared, but the sensor kept
sending data — temperature, pres-
sure, moisture, wind — in real time
to researchers on the ground. The
balloon would rise until it reached a
max altitude of 25,000 meters (15.5
miles), at which point it would pop
and a small parachute would deploy,
carrying the sensor safely back to the
ground, collecting more data on the
way down.
The event was the first weather
balloon launch from a Yuba Water
Agency site near Beale Air Force Base.
But it will not be the last. During
atmospheric rivers, scientists plan to
release a balloon every three hours
from this point to collect data. And
the more data, the better, because
understanding the structure of these
storms can help with forecasting and
f lood control.
“The idea is we’re looking for sci-
ence to provide answers to managing
one of the most precious resources the
state has, which is water,” James says
months later, as he explains the water
management mission to Comstock’s.
In winter months, atmospheric riv-
ers (such as Pineapple Express storms,
which originate near Hawaii) come
barreling in from the Pacific Ocean to
batter the Western states. They’re like
36
comstocksmag.com | May 2020
that unpredictable relative that drops
by on short notice: making messes,
causing spills, breaking things. Over
a 40-year span, these storms caused
roughly $1.1 billion in damages annu-
ally to California and 10 other western
states, according to a study published
in the journal Science Advances.
For decades, f lood management
involved dumping water from the
reservoirs, which usually then f lows
into rivers toward the ocean, to make
space for f lood waters. It was a “better
safe than sorry” strategy to protect
f lood-prone areas. But sometimes the
rains never came, so that water, which
could have been used to supply homes
and farms, was lost.
Following the weather balloon
launch in Yuba County, 2020 marks
the beginning of the field campaign
for Forecast Informed Reservoir Oper-
ations, or FIRO, a new water manage-
ment strategy and collaborative effort
by various agencies. The idea is that,
in the face of climate change, environ-
mental stress and population growth,
advanced technology can lead to
enhanced weather forecasting, which
could make a huge impact in prevent-
ing f loods and keeping reservoirs full.
‘Forecasts aren’t reliable’
Researchers are already using ra-
dar aimed at the Sierra Nevada and
dropping sensors from military planes
above storms in the Pacific Ocean.
They will check moisture levels in
the soil to see how much is absorbed.
Weather balloons have been used for
a long time, released by the National
Weather Service every 12 hours at sites
across the U.S., including three in Cal-
ifornia. But now, researchers plan to
send them up more frequently during
storms from strategic sites in the state.
With better tools at their disposal,
agencies can monitor atmospheric
rivers and plan accordingly, says Anna
Wilson, field research manager for the
Center for Western Weather and Water
Extremes at Scripps.
“It is so important for California’s
future as we start to get less snow,
PIGS IN A
PIPELINE
When exposed to elements over
time, pump stations, pipelines and
water storage tanks can become
damaged or corroded. Corrosion
costs in the U.S. hit $1 trillion in 2013,
making it one of the largest single ex-
penses in our economy, according to
G2MT Laboratories, which performs
corrosion testing and other inspec-
tions in various industries.
But a new technology is being
used to help extend the lifespan of
pipes and related infrastructure.
Last year, Jacobs, a Dallas-based
engineering group, collaborated with
a technology company and the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission
to develop a smart application of
magnetic flux leakage technology.
The concept of smart pigging —
instruments with sensors sent down
the pipeline — was already common
in the oil and gas-pipeline industry,
but the innovation was adapting
magnetic flux leakage smart pigging
to steel pipelines with mortar lining,
according to Rod Jackson, a corrosion
engineer for Jacobs. This assessment
tool can provide high-resolution
scans for water utilities to monitor
asset health in real time, detecting
weak points and potential defects, so
they can use data to plan ahead.
A Sacramento-based Jacobs
team led the project for the SFPUC’s
Hetch Hetchy water system division,
based in Tuolumne County. The
Hetch Hetchy pipelines involved in
this project run from Oakdale to the
Tesla Water Treatment Facility near
Tracy, which makes Sacramento an
ideal location for assisting the SFPUC
with its Hetch Hetchy system, Jack-
son says.
–Russell Nichols