ARM/GCIP NESOB-97 NOAA/ATDD Little Washita Watershed Soil Moisture 
     Dataset
     
     1.0  General Description
     
          The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/ 
     Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) Soil Moisture 
     Dataset is one of several sub-surface datasets provided for the GEWEX 
     Continental-Scale International Project (GCIP) Near Surface Observation 
     Data Set (NESOB) 1997 project.  This dataset contains data from one 
     station, the Little Washita Watershed Long Term Flux Site, within the
     NESOB 1997 domain (100.5W to 94.5W longitude and 34N to 39N latitude) and 
     time period (01 April 1997 through 31 March 1998).
     
     2.0  Detailed Data Description
      
          The first long-term flux monitoring site was established within the 
     Little Washita Watershed, near Chickasha, Oklahoma, which is within the 
     NESOB-97 region.  Soil moisture data have been recorded beginning in
     June 1997.  

     2.1  Detailed Format Description
     
          The NOAA/ATDD Soil Moisture Dataset contains eight metadata
     parameters and one data parameter and flag.  The metadata
     parameters describe the date, time, network, station and location at which
     the data were collected.  Data values are valid for the 30 minutes 
     preceeding the time of observation.  All times are UTC.  The data
     parameter consists of soil volumetric water content at 10 cm zone. 
     Table 1 below details the data parameter.  The data parameter has an 
     associated Quality Control (QC) flag. A description of the possible QC 
     flag values is listed in Table 2.

     
     -------
     
     Parameters                             Units
     ----------                             -----
     
     Date of Observation                    UTC
     Time of Observation                    UTC
     Network Identifier                     Abbreviation of platform
                                            name
     Station Identifier                     Network Dependent
     Latitude                               Decimal degrees, South
                                            is negative
     Longitude                              Decimal degrees, West
                                            is negative
     Station Occurrence                     Unitless
     Station Elevation                      Meters
     Soil Moisture                       
     QC flag                                (See Table 2)
     
     Table 2
     -------
     
     QC Code             Description
     -------             -----------
     U                   Unchecked
     G                   Good
     M                   Normally recorded but missing
     D                   Questionable
     B                   Unlikely
     N                   Not available or Not observed.
     X                   Glitch
     E                   Estimated
     I                   Derived parameter can not be computed due
                         to insufficient data.
     
     2.2  Data Remarks
     
          This data is from a long-term flux monitoring site established 
     within the Little Washita Watershed, near Chickasha, Oklahoma.  The
     tower (34 deg 58' N, 97 deg 77' W) was placed about one quarter mile 
     north of State Road 19 within a grazed pasture owned by Earl Morris.
     Pasture surrounds the 3 meter tower in all sectors providing a 
     minimum fetch of 200 meters over gently rolling terrain. The soil at 
     this site (upper 60 cm) is classified as clay loam with sand, silt, 
     and clay fractions of 25%, 45%, and 30%, respectively. The bulk 
     density at this site is 1.6 g/cm3 +/- 0.1.  The grasses and 
     vegetation surrounding the tower are occasionally grazed by the 
     farmers cattle.  

          The soil moisture sensor used is a Vitel hydra sensor.


     3.0  Quality Control Processing
     
          No QC was performed on this dataset by the University Corporation 
     for Atmospheric Research/Joint Office for Science Support (UCAR/JOSS)