February 2005

The GPS was taken out one day after our initial test runs where were could still see our tracks in the snow from the GPR test runs. Using the GPS we are able to pinpoint our exact location on earth using numerous satellite signals from our skies. We take GPS recordings so we can have an exact distance that we traveled with the gps and will be able to make more accurate measurements with the GPR and know exactly where we took the test runs and show our positions on the lake.

The first photo is just an overview of Half Moon Lake with our three test run transects in place.

Here is a closeup of the area we took the GPS and GPR over. We started out from the dock of the Sea Sprites and moved westerly towards Carson Park in Half Moon Lake (1). From there we moved easterly towards Luther Midelfort Hospital (2). The third line was a northly direction. You can see it was a little wavy, but that was because there were trucks parked on the ice from the fishermen of the season.

GPR Winter: Will take you to the GPR Winter page that shows our results.

June 2005

After our initial test runs this past Winter we were able to start our summer research. To begin this project we wanted to take steps in constructing a Bathymetric map of Half Moon Lake. The Lake had a very high concentration of weed growth and we were unable to use a sonar to calculate any accurate depths of the lake. To solve this problem we got a 16 foot pole vault pole and and another smaller 7 foot pole to mark the lakes depths with. We started taking measurements in late May and ended in early June. Using a Zodiac inflatable boat we tooled around the entire lake measuring the depths with our poles and inputing the numbers into our GPS system. We took over 3000 position points, each detailing the depth of the lake and produced the Bathymetric map. Click here to navigate to the Bathymetric map.

Once again we took the ground penetrating radar out on Half Moon Lake