The policy of this US DOE site is that all activities, instruments, and facilities will be conducted and operated in such a manner that all reasonable precautions are taken to protect the health and safety of employees, guest research participants, and the general public. Therefore, health and safety for all people that are present on land leased for the SGP CART Site will take precedence over all operations. Furthermore, all reasonable steps will be taken to minimize dangers from all hazards to life, property, and the environment. The SGP CART Site will comply with all health, nuclear safety, radiological safety, industry safety, fire protection, and environmental protection rules and policies of OSHA, Argonne National Laboratory and the US Department of Energy.
The SGP CART Site Program Manager and the Site Operations Manager are responsible for being knowledgeable of and implementing applicable safety policies and directives and taking other actions as necessary to provide for the safety of the personnel and operations they supervise or persons present at the SGP CART Site.
The SGP CART Site Safety Officer is responsible for providing guidance and oversight of the SGP CART Site safety requirements and ensures that all site personnel, guest research participants, and the general public are acting in accordance with applicable safety requirements. In addition:
- Any person has the authority to cease operations that are defined by OSHA, DOE, and ANL to be eminent (life-threatening) danger. The Site Safety Officer or the Site Operations Manager (or both) shall be immediately notified of any safety or emergency incident occurring at any SGP CART facility.
- Situations that are considered to be high risk potential for injury will be immediately brought to the attention of appropriate personnel. Corrective actions may be required before work will be allowed to continue.
- Any personnel variance granted by the Site Safety Officer will be indicated by the badge worn by the individual granted the variance.
- All hazardous waste will be disposed of in accordance with OSHA, DOE, and ANL policy. Site Operations must be notified of all chemicals being brought onto the site. The Site Safety Officer will be available to assist in the proper storage methods for all chemicals. However, all guest research participants are responsible for the proper removal and/or disposal of all chemical wastes while at the site.
Compliance with these policies and procedures will apply to SGP CART Site facilities, for site operations employees, guest research participants, visitors, temporary appointees, students, and the general public.
Safety Violations/Discrepancies: The Site Safety Officer and Site Operations Manager have the authority to cease operations of any activity that is in violation of federal, state, or local safety regulations or is in violation of the items covered in this orientation. Any person has the authority to cease operations that are immediately dangerous to life and health (imminent danger). The Site Safety Officer or the Site Operations Manager (or both) shall be immediately notified of any safety or emergency incident occurring at any SGP CART facility.
Visitor Sign-in and Sign-out:
All visitors to the SGP CART site are required to complete a Site Visit Request Form before the visit. A form can be requested by calling the Site Program Manager at (630) 252-5836 or by calling the SGP CART Site at (405) 388-4053.
Visitors are required to sign the visitor sign-in log and get a visitor badge anytime they visit the Central Facility site; likewise, be sure to sign out if you are leaving the site, even if it is for lunch and you plan to come back to the site. It is very important that you sign in and sign out so that, in case of an emergency, we have a way to track where you are. The visitor sign-in log is located in the Central Facility Control Trailer.
Visitors going to SGP CART Extended Facilities or other SGP CART facilities are required (1) to make a check-in call from the site to notify Site Operations (405-388-4053) of the time of arrival on-site and (2) to call again and notify Site Operations of the time of departure. Any pertinent information regarding the site or operations at the Extended Facility, such as severe weather, will be coordinated between Site Operations and the visitor during the check-in call.
When performing work at locations other than the main site, telephone contact may be used to communicate with Site Operations after your initial sign-in. You must have a cellular telephone when working at remote sites, and the number of that telephone must be given to Site Operations so you can be contacted in the event of an emergency.
Dress Code:
The following dress code is applicable at all SGP CART facilities:
- Long pants (no shorts)
- Shirt (may be short-sleeved as long as you have 4-in. sleeve or longer)
- Shoes that have a substantial sole (and, if out in the field, shoes with ankle support)
- NO sandals or thongs allowed
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Personal protective equipment must be utilized when performing work at the SGP CART Site. All users are responsible for providing and using the PPE for the work they are performing at the site. Common examples of work that require PPE are listed in Appendix A.
Smoking, Alcohol, Drugs, and Firearms:
Smoking is prohibited inside any of the buildings, enclosures, and trailers at the SGP CART site. Smoking is allowed outside in non-fire-danger areas only. Smoking debris are to be placed in authorized receptacles only.
Alcoholic beverages, illegal drugs, and firearms are strictly prohibited at any SGP CART facility or site. The use or possession of same will be grounds for site access denial.
Hazards:
There are numerous hazards, including but not inclusive, electrical, chemical, ionizing and non-ionizing, and natural at the SGP CART Site. These are addressed in Appendix A.
Emergency Situations and Services:
Each of the 7 permanent Central Facility Trailers are fitted with a First Aid Kit, Fire Extinguisher, Eye Wash Station, and appropriate safety signs. The Site Safety Officer will conduct a training orientation that will outline the proper procedures for using the safety equipment at the site.
Local authorities (to include police, fire, and medical services) have been identified for each of the SGP CART site facilities. Routine and emergency coordination for these emergency services will be provided through telephone contact with the Central Facility Control Trailer at 405-388-4053.
If emergency situations arise, first take the immediate required action (first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR], etc.), and then contact the Central Facility to advise of the situation. Each of the site operations personnel have been instructed and certified in CPR and First Aid. More information and guidance on emergency situation actions and reporting will be provided by the Site Safety Officer at the Central Facility. ALL ACCIDENTS, INJURIES (MINOR AND OTHERWISE) MUST BE REPORTED TO THE SITE SAFETY OFFICER.
Severe Weather:
The Central Facility will establish the “site weather alert condition” (red, yellow, or green). The Central Facility has access to near real-time weather radar displays, plus access to the Internet weather advisory services, including the National Weather Service advisories and radar displays.
Coordination between the Central Facility and all field personnel shall allow for sufficient advance warning of impending severe weather.
The SGP CART site currently uses a three-color system to denote the weather alert status for any given site. The site weather alert condition status will be established and modified as needed by coordination between the Central Facility and applicable personnel on-site. The following categories define the SGP CART weather alert condition status.
Green – Normal Condition
No weather watches or warnings are in effect for the site area.
Yellow – Watch Condition
The yellow weather alert condition is established when forecasted weather conditions may result in a severe weather situation. Severe weather is classified as thunderstorms, tornadoes, heavy rain or snow, flash floods, winter storms, heavy fog, or any other weather condition that may hamper or affect site operations and personnel. During the watch condition, Central Facility and field personnel shall maintain their alertness to the surrounding weather conditions. Any changes noticed shall be immediately coordinated between the Central Facility and field personnel via telephone.
Red I – Warning Condition
The red I weather alert condition is established when forecasted severe weather is imminent. The important aspect of the red I condition is for the field personnel to implement acute heightened awareness of the surrounding weather conditions and to be aware that the potential exists for a condition that may require field personnel to seek shelter at any moment. If the severe weather includes lightning, large hail, and high winds and if these events are observed within 5 miles of the site and are moving toward the site, all outside work shall be immediately stopped. At the Central Facility, personnel shall remain inside the designated site building. Field personnel shall evacuate the site to a safe location. On reaching the safe location, field personnel shall call and notify the Central Facility of their location, status, and any other relevant information until the weather threat has passed.
Red II – Warning: Take Cover
The red II weather alert condition denotes the threshold for immediate evacuation to an adequate storm shelter. At the Central Facility, all personnel shall immediately proceed to the storm shelters, taking the cellular telephone and flashlight.
At remote facilities without storm shelters, personnel who have not otherwise sought a safe location shall immediately seek a low-lying area, such as a ditch or ravine, for cover.
Upon assessment that the severe weather event has passed, personnel shall cautiously exit the storm shelter and immediately survey the area, noting any observed damage.
After completion of the initial damage assessment, call and notify the Central Facility that you have safely survived the severe weather event, and relay information on any damage observed. The Central Facility will advise what additional actions need to be taken.
Storm Shelters:
The Central Facility Control Center will provide weather forecasts and warnings for the Integrated IOP participants. Specific site evacuation plans and procedures will be developed and provided for each IDP location.
Two storm shelters at the Central Facility have capacity for about 40-50 people. Priority is given to site operations personnel, then others. If we exceed capacity of the shelter, and when the site goes to a severe weather warning condition, all non-essential personnel will be asked to evacuate the site.
When the site is evacuated, personnel will be expected to go their place of lodging and check in with the Central Facility Control Trailer for notification that they have arrived safely. They will be contacted when conditions are safe to return to the work site.
Site Locations and Facilities:
The optimum planned locations for all the IOP instruments will be at one of three IDP areas at the central facility. IDP #1 (between the Calibration Trailer and the Aerosol Trailers) have electrical and phone hookups for 2 trailer facilities. IDP #2 (nearest the Optical Trailer) has electrical and phone hookups for 3 trailer facilities. IDP #3 (located about 100 m east of the Staging Trailer) has electrical and phone hookups for 3 trailer facilities. IDP #3 is the only location that has 3-phase power. In addition, a limited number of instruments have been set up in appropriate trailers at the Central Facility or in outside areas.
Each of the IDP areas will have electrical and phone hookups for the appropriate number of mobile trailers.
Because the Central Facility experiences numerous power fluctuations per day, for periods of seconds to 10’s of seconds, we strongly recommend that all sensitive equipment be connected to an Uninterruptable Power Supply provided by the participant.
Guest Instrument Setup at the Central Facility:
Each of the trailers will be parked at the appropriate site, leveled, and temporarily tied down. Site operations will provide for the tie-downs.
Arrangements for connections to available power and phone will be made by site operations and a qualified electrician. It is the policy of the site that ALL ELECTRICAL WORK WILL BE CONDUCTED AT THE SITE WILL BE DONE WITH ELECTRICAL POWER SYSTEMS DEENERGIZED. ALL HOOKUPS TO ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS REQUIRE INSPECTION BY A QUALIFIED ELECTRICIAN.
Arrangements for instrument supplies that require delivery to the site will be coordinated by site operations.
Site Operations will provide for portable toilets and potable water.
After initial setup, general setup/checkout of all research participant equipment will be performed. In addition, phone (both cellular and/or commercial) procedures will be explained. Although outside lines can be programmed to individual locations, the number of physical phone lines in and out of the site are very limited. The phones are also paging and intercom systems that can be used to locate and communicate with anyone on the site.
During the general checkout phase, each research participant will be required to provide a familiarization briefing and inspection of their respective equipment to Site Operations Personnel. Any safety or operational concerns will be identified by the user during this inspection and risk mitigation methods discussed.
Parking is extremely limited at the central facility. All research participants will be allowed to unload their equipment at their respective locations, but after setup, all cars will be parked at designated parking areas. Carpooling is strongly encouraged. Vehicular traffic on the central facility is restricted.
Electrical connections between mobile trailers and patch panels at all IDP locations will be standardized. It is assumed that each mobile trailer has an umbilical power cord provided by the user. ARM will provide a standardized male ARC-Type connector for a determined amperage size. Each mobile trailer will have an additional 3 or 4 GCFI outlets on the patch panel for use. Each mobile trailer will have its own patch panel. Also, a phone connection will be provided.
Aircraft Safety:
All aircraft operate under FAA guidelines and approval. All aircraft operations will be coordinated with Vance Air Force Base. Almost all primary requirements for individual IOPs call for daylight aircraft operations. The UAV IOP aircraft will receive airspace preference since their requirements are the least flexible. Airspace conflicts (for individual IOPs) would be minimal between the G-1 and either the Citation or King Air since for the most part, these aircraft will be flying under different sets of meteorological conditions. There could be conflicts between the UAV IOP aircraft and other aircraft during 1) the initial stages of the Altus flights when the Twin Otter is following the Altus up to altitude and decent, and 2) cloudy conditions when the Twin Otter is measuring radiation fields in the vicinity of clouds and the Cloud IOP aircraft are measuring cloud microphysics.
All tethersonde and parafoil kite platforms will be brought to the 60 meter tower level or the surface for the duration of any aircraft flights over the Central Facility when aircraft flight levels are below 2.0 km. Confirmation by aircraft shall be made prior to low-level passes.
The only exception for tethersonde and kite systems being brought down is for planned intercomparison of aircraft chilled mirror hygrometers with the tethered system instrument at tethersonde/kite altitude. In this case, aircraft will approach within 2 nautical miles of the tethered system, pilots will establish visual contact, and pilots will determine if aircraft can approach safely.
Surface to aircraft and aircraft to aircraft communications for operations have been established at frequency 123.45. Any changes to this must be approved by the Integrated IOP Aircraft Coordinator.
Tethersonde and Parafoil Kite Safety:
The Porch tethersonde platform has received FAA approval to operate up to 1.0 km. The Balsley Parafoil Kite and tethersonde systems have asked the FAA for approval to operate to 1.5 km but approval was granted to only 1.0 km. All tethersonde and kite operations will be coordinated with Vance Air Force Base. With those approvals are written FAA guidelines that shall be followed at all times.
In addition, all tethersonde and parafoil kite platforms will be brought to either 60 meters or the surface for the duration of any aircraft flights over the Central Facility when aircraft flight levels are below 2.0 km.
When windspeeds exceed the platform operational guidelines:
- Porch small tethersonde: calm to m/s
- Porch large tethersonde: calm to 13 m/s
- Balsley small blimp: calm to ?
- Balsley large blimp: calm to ?
- Balsley light wind kite: 3-12 m/s
- Balsley high wind kite: 5-20 m/s
operations will cease.
Furthermore, when the tethered lines of the tethersonde systems are within 25 degree horizontal (azimuth) of the 60 meter tower, operations will cease and the tethersonde systems will be brought down. Because of the dynamics of the kite system, the tether line of the kite is 50-60 degrees vertical (zenith) during operations. When the kite is lowered, the angle increases. However, launching of the kite potentially results in very low zenith angles. Therefore, the kite shall be permitted to operate at any wind direction, but launched only when the tethered line is greater than 25 degrees zenith when wind directions are greater than 25 degrees horizontal (azimuth) of the 60 meter tower.
A search light shall be used to illuminate tethered platforms during nighttime operations. A generator powered carbon arc type search light is the only light source bright enough to illuminate the kite or tethersonde at night. Although emissions may impact aerosol during the nighttime hours, the safe operations of the Kite/Tethersonde platforms have highest priority. Carbon filaments typically need replacement every 30-60 minutes and take approximately 5-10 seconds to change out. A second light is available as a back-up if the primary light fails. The second searchlight shall be used only as backup and not used to illuminate a second tethered platform.
For routine daytime operations, both platforms (kite and tethersonde) may be flown. For single platform (i.e., either tethersonde or kite system) nighttime operations, the search light will be used to illuminate the platform. For two platforms at nighttime, the search light will be used for illumination of the tethersonde. The kite system uses xenon strobe lights attached to the tetherline and kite at about 100 m intervals. The strobes are battery powered. Upon written approval by research aircraft pilots participating at nighttime that the xenon strobe lights provide adequate lighting to conduct safe aircraft operations, the kite system will be permitted to operate with the tethersonde. If the batteries for the xenon strobe lights fail during nighttime operations, the kite system will immediately be brought to the surface. A tethersonde platform may be flown up to 60 m at nighttime without a light.
The IOP forecaster will provide a forecast of wind speed and direction for daytime and nighttime operations of tethered platforms. The ultimate responsibility for safe operations of the tethersonde systems rests with the operators who shall not operate during conditions that exceed operational guidelines already set forth in this document. The IOP forecaster has final approval of tethersonde operations.
Lidar Safety:
The University of Utah Polarization Diversity Lidar (PDL):
is non-eye safe and has asked the FAA for approval for operation at the Central Facility. With those approvals are written FAA guidelines that shall be followed at all times. All PDL operations will be coordinated with Vance Air Force Base. The FAA has issued a Notice To Airman (NOTAM) in the past when this and the tethersonde and kite systems have been used in past IOPs. This is anticipated again for this IOP. They have provided a copy of their laser operations safety plan and laser energy calculations, which has been approved by the ANL and SGP CART Site Laser Safety Officers. THE PDL LIDAR SHALL OPERATE ONLY IN THE VERTICAL (90 DEGREES ZENITH).
The NASA/GSFC vertical scanning lidar:
is only non-eye safe for 177 meters out of the barrel. They will scan at 90 degrees, 45 degrees, 10 degrees, and 5 degrees. The lowest elevations angles of the vertical profile pertain to the 60 meter and 25 meter levels of the 60 meter tower. Calculations were performed at all potential surface locations within the unsafe path of the lidar. The Radiometer Calibration Facility (Calibration Trailer [RCF]) is the only potential facility in the pathway of the lidar, but at 5 deg. elevation provides an 18 + or – 1 foot clearance over a 6 ft tall person standing on the top platform of the RCF. All other locations are well below the beam of the lidar and therefore possess no threat to surface activities. The lidar also does not pose a threat to aviation. However, the NASA/GSFC LIDAR SHALL NOT PROFILE AT ELEVATION ANGLES BELOW 5 DEGREES VERTICAL (ZENITH). In addition, the NASA/GSFC lidar will perform a beam columation test. A target will be placed on the roof of the RCF. The member performing the test on the platform of the RCF must wear protective goggles. No other personnel will be allowed on this platform until the test is complete. This will be the only time the NASA/GSFC lidar will be allowed to go below 5 deg elevation. This activity must be coordinated with the Site Safety Officer.
The PSU vertically pointing lidar:
is non eyesafe up to 1.3 km and the operator has asked the FAA for approval for operation at the central facility. Since this instrument was not planned for in advance, this instrument is required to have approval of their Standard Operations Procedures and the FAA. PSU shall not be allowed lidar operations until proof of these requirements can be provided to the Site Safety Officer.
Helmsfield Replicator Sonde:
Although the Helmsfield ice crystal replicator sonde weight and size do not require formal FAA approval, we have asked the FAA and Vance Air Force officials for operational guidelines. There will only be 5-6 launches of this sonde. It is anticipated that replicator sondes will be launched when winds have a westerly component, moving the instrument away from Vance MOAs. FAA guidelines shall be followed at all times. All replicator sonde operations will be coordinated with Vance Air Force Base. Vance officials have asked for at least 30 minutes warning prior to a replicator sonde launch, followed by notification of sonde launch and notification of when the sonde is once again on the ground. The IOP forecaster has the final approval of replicator sonde operation.
The authors would like to acknowledge all of the scientists, engineers, technicians, and staff who made the Fall 1997 Integrated IOP the success it was.