Air and Soil Temperatures from Sites in Alaska 1995-2001

Summary

This data set consists of air and soil temperatures from various sites in Alaska between 1995 and 2001. Data loggers recorded soil temperatures at 1 cm below the ground or snow surface, and air temperatures at 1.6 m above the surface. Temperatures are given in degrees Celsius. Data collection sites around the state include: Toolik Lake, Galbraith, Happy Valley, Prudhoe Bay, Council, Livengood, Yukon River, Barrow, Gold Creek, Kanuti River, Fairbanks, Chandalar, and Graylink Lake.

The data consist of 53 ASCII text files, and are available via ftp. Each data file contains date, time, and temperature columns, and some files contain additional data. A table in the documentation for this data set lists each data file and its contents. Data are available via FTP.

The research project was funded by the Arctic System Sciences (ARCSS) Program, grant number OPP-9321730.

Citing These Data:

Welker, J. and J. Fahnestock. 2003. Air and Soil Temperatures from Sites in Alaska 1995-2001. Boulder, CO: National Center for Atmospheric Research, ARCSS Data Archive.

Overview Table

Table of Contents

1. Contacts and Acknowledgments:

Investigator(s) Name and Title:

Jeff M. Welker, Sr. Research Scientist, and Jace Fahnestock, Research Scientist

2. Detailed Data Description:

Format:

Tables in text format

File Naming Convention:

File names consist of the following elements:

Example data file names:
1995w_tlk_sb.txt
1999w_kan_t.txt

File Size:

File sizes range from 18 KB to 123 KB

Spatial Coverage:

Southernmost Latitude: 64.00 N
Northernmost Latitude: 74.00N
Westernmost Longitude: 164.00 W
Easternmost Longitude: 148.00 W

Temporal Coverage:

Experiments were performed between 31 May 1995 and 20 June 2001

Temporal Resolution:

Measurement intervals vary, but are usually several times each day.

Parameter or Variable:

Parameter Description:

Soil temperature and air temperature.

Unit of Measurement:

All measurements are given in degrees Celsius.

Parameter Source:

Air and soil temperatures were taken with HOBO sensors with data loggers.

Parameter Range:

Soil temperatures were taken at 1 cm below the surface unless otherwise noted. Air temperatures were taken at 1.6 m above the surface unless otherwise noted.

Sample Data Record:

Data are in tables. Each file is slightly different (described later in this section), so the number and types of columns vary across locations and may include the following:

Date= Data of the data collection
Time = Time of the data collection
Air = air temperature 1.6 m from ground surface
CTL-Air = 15 cm air in control plots
OTC-Air = 15 cm air in warmed plots
CTL-Soil = 1 cm soil depth in control plots
OTC-Soil = 1 cm soil depth in warmed plots

The following table describes the parameters for each file:

Error Sources:

Missing data indicated with -99.99

5. References and Related Publications:

Related Projects: Arctic Transitions in the Land-Atmosphere System (ATLAS)

The Land-Atmosphere-Ice Interactions (LAII) Program is part of the Arctic System Science (ARCSS) Program of the National Science Foundation. LAII has overall goals of understanding how the feedback processes within Arctic system affects global climate change, including changes in the hydrology, biochemical, plants animals, and ecosystems; as well as how these changes affect and are affected by human activities. The LAII ATLAS program is designed as an interdisciplinary multi-year project with many investigators and varied instrumentation to address the aforementioned objectives in Alaska and eventually in other parts of the Arctic. For information on the ATLAS Project, see the LAII Web page: http://www.laii.uaf.edu/

6. Document Information:

Document Creation Date:

7 May 2003

Document URL:

http://data.eol.ucar.edu/codiac/dss/id=106.ARCSS907