Water music 🎶

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There is a really cool website for Hydrological Soundscapes of different rivers see  https://hydrologicalsoundscapes.github.io/

Next to such calming music, water inspired artists. Some of them might even be deep inside hydrologists. A long time on my to-do list is to make a list of different water-related songs.  

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The water top 2000 (not ranked and in progress):

• TOOL - FLOOD
• Neil Young - Be the Rain
• Weezer - Here Comes the Rain
• Phil Collins - I Wish It Would Rain Down
• Luka Bloom - I am bogman
• Talkin Heads - Once in a life , about geohydrology
• Talking heads - take me to the river
• Dave Matthews Band - Don't drink the water
• Waterboys - this is the sea 
• Creedence Clearwater Revival - who'll stop the rain
• Led Zeppelin - the rain song
• Wolfheart - the flood
• Vance Joy - Fire and flood
• The FRAMES - Fitzcarraldo 
• Tom Petty - Learning to fly
• Gun N'Roses - November Rain
• dEUS - One thing about waves
• Levellers - Maid of the river 
• The decemberists - down by the water
• Jovanotti feat. Bombino - Si Alza il Vento
• Blind Melon - "No Rain" 

Check out the regular updated youtube playlist  and if you have water songs, please share them.

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Coffee hydrology ☕️

"One more cup of coffee 'fore I go..." (click 2 check Bob's song) 

 

Coffee a magical potion. Coffee is a potent drink for writing the thesis or writing papers or to start interesting hydrological discussions. Not only the fuel of work but also a ritual and moment of peace. 

Fika with friends and colleagues.

Bitter taste to pleasant 

My first contact with coffee-ish beverages was at a summer job on a tulip farm. A dispenser supplied instant coffee with milk powder. Luke water made the powerder drinkable. Too much sugar made the bitter taste disappear and become drinkable and, more importantly, supplied extra energy to chop off lily and tulip heads.

The instant coffee did not stick. The first foamy cappuccino on holiday instead did. Young and unfamiliar with C8H10N4O2, five cups were too much to stop jumping around. A lesson learned: The coffee intake remained relatively low afterwards. On cycling holidays, filter coffee replaced the instant cappuccino slowly, and to save weight, sugar was rationed. 

The bitter coffee taste, slowly changed to something tasty - especially well-brewed bitter-sweet espresso. 

Exploreing coffee berries

It took until my internship/thesis in the Makanya catchment in Tanazia that I encountered real coffee. After weeks of instant coffee, the common type of brewing, high up in the mountains of the catchment grew green and orange red berries on a bush. Coffee! We were inviated with the village head who invited us for coffee. Instead of instant coffee this time real coffee rosted on a fire, coursly grinded and brewn with coffee. I expected a strong cup of joe and dreamt of real espresso. Instead it was a weak brew, kind of diluted brown water. Althought the taste was not the one I expected the guesture wonderful. 

Coffee berries on the bush

Fresh coffee berries in Tana

The filter coffee turned to Moka and a morning ritual. 

During my post-doc travel to Costa Rica, I encountered a different way of brewing coffee: in a sock. Coffee is ground coarsely and in a cotton/ linen sock shape filter where hot water is poured in. Depending on the person who brews, it can become a nice strong brew or "agua chacha" (tasteless brown water). Costa Rica is a beautiful country and produces world-class coffee with unique terroirs creating different tastes.

Wonderful espresso in Costa Rica

Coffee hydrology

During the pandemic, I explored the world of special coffees from home. Reading and watching up on coffee e.g.

How to brew - coffee and water ratio
Recipes

I suddenly realized while teaching online that coffee is next to a drink, which is also a great analogy to explain hydrological processes. 

In the end, brewing coffee is nothing more than Darcy's law  Q=-K x A x I  

 

Discharge (Q) depends on the material property (K), the filter area (A) and the gradient over the filter (I). The material property K depends on the grind size of the filter and the preferential flow path through macropores or evenly distributed grains. The gradient depends on the amount of water poured on the filter or pressure applied in a fully automated coffee machine. The flow rate and grain size distribution affect the extraction efficiency, i.e., how much caffeine the water can extract from the grind. In the end, it is similar to hydrochemistry, how rainfall interacts with soil and geology, and how long water resides in the subsurface. There are many different YouTube channels (e.g. J. Hoffmann) to learn about coffee, and when observing, also learn about geohydrology subconsciously.  

Next to popular YouTubes and wesites there is acctual a field of coffee sciences with papers in journals on coffee check, e.g.

• Coffee extraction: A review of parameters and their influence on the physicochemical characteristics and flavour of coffee brews 
• A new methodology to estimate the steady-state permeability of roast and ground coffee in packed beds 
•  Water quality for Espresso coffee
• Suppressing the coffee stain effect: how to control colloidal self-assembly in evaporating drops using electrowetting
• Experimental and modelling: Systematically Improving Espresso: Insights from Mathematical Modeling and Experiment
•  Method comparison: Comparison of espresso coffee brewing techniques 

and even on how coffee grounds affect soil properties

• Sequential effects of spent coffee grounds on soil physical properties - Cervera‐Mata - 2023 - Soil Use and Management - Wiley Online Library 

Check also a short video on evaporation and condensation

 

Coffee hydrology and teaching

Coffee is great to break the ice in online and in class teaching. A nice coffee hydrology question developed, to my knowledge by Prof. emmeritus Allan Rodhe (in case I am wrong let me know) and I use in teaching at Uppsala Uni - BSc course 1TV015  Meteorologi, hydrologi och miljömätmetoder: "Here comes some coffee brewing hydrology" combines Darcy and the massbalance:

The figure below shows a coffee maker. For simplicity, it has a cylindrical filter holder with a horizontal filter at the bottom. All coffee outflow takes place through the filter. During brewing, the water supply from the water heater is 0.11 L min-1, which after a while gives a stationary water level with the figure b = 8.0 cm. When the water heater inflow stops, place your empty cup under the brewer. The cup is cylindrical with the same inner diameter as the filter holder. Filter holder diameter = 6.0 cm and height of the ground coffee a = 5.0 cm. How long does it take to fill the coffee cup with 6.0 cm of coffee?

When the inflow to the brewer ceases, the water level drops, the total potential gradient over the coffee powder decreases and the water flow decreases. Calculate the water level as a function of time and hence the time for a certain lowering of the water level (= the increase of the cup's coffee level).

For solution pass by the next class of 1TV015 😊

After all the writing, I need first a fika with .... 

 * ps. links are indicated in orange

update 20240125

Hello world #2

"Hello world" 

On 04-05-09, everything was new. I started my PhD adventure and hydrodroplets blog to update family, friends and colleagues. In the first years, I posted regularly about different short and longer water experiences. Towards the end of the PhD, with increasing stress levels, the number of posts decreased. 

Once I graduated, I started to explore the microblog Twitter to chirp shorter experiences. The quick and short style allowed me to communicate water-related tweets. At the time of writing, 1100+ tweets. Consequently, the blog posts decreased or got stuck at 100+ old-fashioned blog posts (day of writing). Despite not posting actual blog posts the, hydrodroplets.blogspot.com changed from blogging towards my "web-hub-portfolio" in which 

In time, online media keeps changing rapidly. Twitter changed with new positive and negative vibes to X while new players, e.g., 🧵or Bluesky, appeared. While such microblogs are helpful for rapid chirping, the quantity is not always quality. 

After these years, hydrodroplets.blogspot.com is still around. With the new website online, the plan is to convert hydrodroplets from a "web-hub-portfolio" again to a blog with more frequent, longer posts. 

Time will tell what the future brings, but there are many exciting things to blog and chirp about. Stay tuned... 

A better environment. The future is now ...

Our daily gadgets are made of plastic. If they break, you throw them and buy a new one. The pile electrical waste is growing. Bit more techy? You could try to repair it and call the helpdesk of the gadget manufacturer for spare parts. 

Helpdesk …  ?  

No reply …
... Still waiting!

This is what happened lately. Some years ago we bought a hairdryer. We chose the more expensive one assuming it would last longer. On the long run maybe even better for the environment? 

Wrong. After some satisfactory years with dry hair, last week the plastic on/off button broke. Some minuets later, the dryer was in all its pieces. Just a small piece broke internally and made the hairdryer a piece of non functional plastic. Its just a cheap plastic button assuming I could order a new one and the manufacturer would send it within a couple of days. One week and some days after I sent an e-mail :tumbleweed … Disappointed filled with anger, my inner engineer kicked in and thought well why not to make a new button by my self. An old hard to read ruler + 3D cad program + 30 min on Saturday morning later I had my digital version of the on/off button on my computer. 

(use mouse to turn and click here to download .stl)

If I had a 3D printer I could print and use the hairdryer straight away. Unfortunately… :(

Luckily the 3D print community is rising. Loads of people offer their printer and make 3D printing also more accessible for everyone. For your nearest printer check www.3dhubs.com 

One day later, Johan sent me the pickup info and with the new button we finally have dry hairs again. 

Grey button up (original) below replica ( 3D print)

Fully functioning hairdryer made in Mendrisio+3DP home made adaption = dry hairs

I used 3D printers for work making instruments which are low cost and flexible in their use. Now also in private I can say: we arrived in the future. A goose bump experience - going beyond the one when I got my first smartphone. Some mouse clicks on e.g. https://www.tinkercad.com/  or http://www.openscad.org/ upload on the net and things work again. You can design your next lamp cap, or what ever your imagination allows to.

So, instead watching Netflix -  wake up and watch youtube how to make 3D designs.

Also don't forget the other things on your TODO list (click here) or see lekkersamenklooien

lekkersamenklooien poster download (click here) 

Climate change is a hot topic where consuming less meat or exchanging your SUV for a bike to work can make the difference. Now we also have another tool (more impact) to make a impact for a better planet: Instead of throw away and buy - Just repair, use state of the art tools such as 3D printing and reuse. It not that difficult and easier than ever !!

Especially when manufacturers have an open design and promote* to do so …




* by not providing spare parts  

Alptal | THE GAME ...

Ever wanted to be in the Alptal...

Experience what it is like to be a hydrologist... 

Smell, hear, touch or dream about ... 

Fun and eemotions for young, old and all the family or your department... 

Alptal the GAME 

Developed with great care and expertise in the Alptal by ILR games. 

Whoever first crosses all obstacles in the Alptal, collects sample bottles with water  and reaches the finish first wins the game.

Content:

• 1 Board
• 16 different sample bottles
• 1 dice
• 1 Play instruction

Age:     4 - 99

Number of players:      2-16

item number: 00000001048    

To buy transfer money to hydrodroplets and click here to download.

Leonie, Rick, Michi and Ilja thanks for the great time in the Alptal and hope to play soon together.

Stand up for the clouds | especially for some happy rain clouds ...

                                                                   

Clouds are not only source of where all the excitement starts, but this video (click play below) also points on why we should consider clouds more often. For nice pics check cloudappreciationsociety 

Check out some happy rain clouds and hydrology sketches on this blog click pictures

(from: http://scientific-culture.blogspot.com)

(from: http://scientific-culture.blogspot.com)

(from: http://scientific-culture.blogspot.com)

For some music rainy music check:

• http://www.rainymood.com/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QzPziZKqLk
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnnVj6EEU7U

update: ... Kaleidoscope

Hmmm ... in the end a shattered Kaleidoscope. 

update: 

A shame Sene etal N 2017 was not yet published during submission to cite:

 "Metrology is key to reproducing results ... Scientists of all stripes must work with measurement experts so that studies can be compared.  ... So what  can be done? One simple step would  be for funding bodies to involve more metrologists in project selection and assessment. This would encourage the funding of replication studies, help to ensure that financed studies use good metrological practice and set studies up to allow for future attempts at replication. Grants should assess ‘pathways to reproducibility’ along with ‘pathways to impact’. ... " 

see Nature  and replace in the text metrology by hydrology. A missed opportunity for the funding bodies of ..F and me. Well nxt time....

Spring cleaning | 1000+ glass bottles | closing the water sampling circle ...

Like squirrels loads and loads of water samples were collected, analyzed and the boxes stored in the basement in case a re-analysis is necessary. Now with the new sampling season starting, already storage places are piling out and all shelf and cupboards are full with 250 and 20 ml bottles from old projects (20-ml glass vial with cap and additional Teflon/rubber septum) and 250 ml for hydrochemical analyses (250-ml PE bottle with cap): Furka, Rietholzbach, Hotzenwald, Reppisch , or see Fischer et al. HP 2015, Fischer et al. HR 2017 or Fischer et al. JOH 2017 (click link for more info).

Storage are piling out ...

Spring time is also cleaning time. In five steps the full "pizza" boxes were emptied into a big box  for transport ( see 1 |  loaded with fully to be discarded sample bottles of 20 ml;  AxBxC =  40x 42x60  cm ). How many  bottles of 15.7 g would be in the box ... (check later on ). In a #$@%$#@ job all caps were removed and disposed (see 2), the water was drained in the sink. All emptied bottles were sorted in a washing rack and submerged into washing basing with deionized water (see 3). The clean bottles were stored in a box, waiting for the drying in a oven at 105 deg C. After drying and cooling down, the clean bottles are packed for storage. Following the five step, 2.5 hours later ... bottles are ready for new water samples and loads of interesting stable isotope data.  Only new caps are needed + lots of taxpayers CHF saved :D

Five steps to clean bottles :) 

In theory also the caps could be recycled by peeling, in a cumbersome way, the rubber septa from the plastic cap. One reason way using new caps can be seen in the pic below. The broken caps were observed in 50 out of 1510±20 bottles and most likely caused by screwing the cap too firmly on the sample bottle. Expansion of the water during the warmer summer period  and plastic fatigue resulted in a failure of the cap (after +6 years of storage). Hence, nice fractionation. So be careful with caps and long time storage!!!!

Broken caps -> fractionation.  

Morning ritual - Evaporation

Unfortunately in most cases we can see water change from liquid to vapor. However, morgenstund hat Gold im Mund, the early bird catches the worm or a hydrologist catches evaporation check the video with a cup of tea evaporating. Check the thin layer of condensation (whitish) on top the tea blown away ...

Have a nice day :)

... +1 <:D update: 24.01.17 | Spatial variability in the isotopic composition of rainfall

Abstract

Isotope hydrograph separation (IHS) is a valuable tool to study runoff generation processes. To perform an IHS, samples of baseflow (pre-event water) and streamflow are taken at the catchment outlet. For rainfall (event water) either a bulk sample is collected or it is sampled sequentially during the event. For small headwater catchment studies, event water samples are usually taken at only one sampling location in or near the catchment because the spatial variability in the isotopic composition of rainfall is assumed to be small. However, few studies have tested this assumption. In this study, we investigated the spatiotemporal variability in the isotopic composition of rainfall and its effects on IHS results using detailed measurements from a small pre-alpine headwater catchment in Switzerland. Rainfall was sampled sequentially at eight locations across the 4.3 km2 Zwäckentobel catchment and stream water was collected in three subcatchments (0.15, 0.23, and 0.70 km2) during ten events. The spatial variability in rainfall amount, average and maximum rainfall intensity and the isotopic composition of rainfall was different for each event. There was no significant relation between the isotopic composition of rainfall and total rainfall amount, rainfall intensity or elevation. For eight of the ten studied events the temporal variability in the isotopic composition of rainfall was larger than the spatial variability in the rainfall isotopic composition. The isotope hydrograph separation results, using only one rain sampler, varied considerably depending on which rain sampler was used to represent the isotopic composition of event water. The calculated minimum pre-event water contributions differed up to 60%. The differences were particularly large for events with a large spatial variability in the isotopic composition of rainfall and a small difference between the event and pre-event water isotopic composition. Our results demonstrate that even in small catchments the spatial variability in the rainfall isotopic composition can be significant and has to be considered for IHS studies. Using data from only one rain sampler can result in significant errors in the estimated pre-event water contributions to streamflow.

Automatic samplers and mountaineers ...

To use some sort of stimulating substances to increase the performance seems a wide spread phenomenon reading newspapers:

• …
• Cyclist
• Students
• Researchers (in best case coffee)

Now reading that even mountaineers (and those who want to be), can be added to the list. To get up to the higher elevations, beside O2 (most likely enriched 18O compared to surrounding composition), a quite a long list of stuff is used. In the NZZ article on drugs and mountaineering a reference was made to a nice study in plos. The study of Rohbach etal Plos 2016 used a cool sampling setup to monitor and prove one or several drugs in male "discharge", suggesting frequent drug use among climbers ascending Mont Blanc!!! Only a shame the team of Rohbach didn't use a lab in the field for continuous measurements and forgot to analyze the stable isotope composition of the water.

The automatic samplers collecting pristine streamwater e.g. Fischer et al. HR 2017 or Fischer et al. JoH 2017 are lucky to be out in a clean and fresh environment. Unfortunate are the automatic samplers which are used to sample sewerage systems e.g. Ort et al.  EST 2010  to investigate Sampling for Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products (PPCPs) and Illicit Drugs in Wastewater Systems or the ingenious sampling setup of Rohbach check: 

Sampling setup of Rohbach et al. Plos 2016 using an automatic sampler. Poor PhD student who has to empty the sampler. 

Next time one (man/women) is on the toilet and hears a strange peristaltic pump type noise... most likely some body is investigating your coffee or ... consumption.

Ref:

Fischer, B. M. C., Stähli, M., Seibert, J., Stahli, M., & Seibert, J. (2017). Pre-event water contributions to runoff events of different magnitude in pre-alpine headwaters. Hydrology Research, nh2016176. https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2016.176

Fischer, B. M. C., van Meerveld, H. J., & Seibert, J. (2017). Spatial variability in the isotopic composition of rainfall in a small headwater catchment and its effect on hydrograph separation. Journal of Hydrology.

Ort, C., Lawrence, M. G., Reungoat, J., & Mueller, J. F. (2010). Sampling for PPCPs in wastewater systems: comparison of different sampling modes and optimization strategies. Environ. Sci. Technol., 44(16), 6289–6296. https://doi.org/10.1021/es100778d

Robach P, Trebes G, Lasne F, Buisson C, Méchin N, Mazzarino M, et al. (2016) Drug Use on Mont Blanc: A Study Using Automated Urine Collection. PLoS ONE 11(6): e0156786. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0156786

Alptal samplers:

Automatic water sampler in a pristine pre-alpine headwater catchment-WS07 (Fischer et al. HR2017)  

Although pristine waters, in case a colleague is using uranine as a fluro tracer to measure discharge the samples can get a bit yellow :S  

Kaleidoscope...

Kaleidoscope...  














... cross your fingers!

+1 ... <:D

Meteostation ...

Cleaning my c-disk I found an old picture I made a while ago of a sophisticated meteostation on a mountain in Switzerland - Prodkamm (1940 amsl). The hut ward uses the stone to see the weather + forecast it ? 

Some examples of the instructions for the weather stone include (from WIKI ):

• If the rock is wet, it's raining.
• If the rock is swinging, the wind is blowing.
• If the rock casts a shadow, the sun is shining.
• If the rock does not cast a shadow and is not wet, the sky is cloudy.
• If the rock is not visible, it is foggy.
• If the rock is white, it is snowing.
• If the rock is coated with ice, there is a frost.
• If the ice is thick, it's a heavy frost.
• If the rock is bouncing, there is an earthquake.
• If the rock is under water, there is a flood.
• If the rock is warm, it is sunny.
• If the rock is missing, there was a tornado.
• If the rock is wet and swinging violently, there is a hurricane.
• If the rock has white splats on it, watch out for birds.

The HAT...

Dear H2K colleagues:

Thanks a lot for ALL your help during these years and the great hat (lots of effort and great memories)!!!! Only slowly realizing how nice it was!

Big example for hydros...

If its true than its an big example for all hydrologist, from theory to confirmation!


<:D <:D Congrats <:D <:D

Merry X-mas and happy 2016!!!

from times when there was snow

Instead from webcam in the Alptal 24.12.2015 with little snow

+1 ...

+1... (will update soon <:D) 

Happy when it rains... in the news ...

In a rainy mood click here or picture

Now it finnaly rains the news is full of rainy articles check e.g. NZZ  based largly on Barnett's book Rain:a natural and cultural history  

Happy when it rains ...

After a really really long dry spell, where streams run dry and low flows got quite some media attention (see droughtCH or BAFU), today finally today some rain <:D <:D <:D



                         

Dossiers: Ist die aktuelle #Trockenheit ein Zeichen für den Klimawandel? https://t.co/jGj206EucB #Klima

— BAFU (@bafuCH) November 20, 2015 >

Although in German but nice blog on weather and climate by Meteoschweiz click here or picture below. 

ref: meteoschweiz