Oklahoma Mesonet Soil Moisture Data Product Overview
Authors
Laurie Gregory — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Alice T. Cialella — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Richard Wagener — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Alison Tilp — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Lynn L. Ma — Brookhaven National Laboratory
Category
Boundary layer structure, including land-atmosphere interactions and turbulence
Description
1998 Volumetric Water Content for the station BUTL in the Oklahoma Mesonet for comparison to the Illston 2008 paper. While the relative temporal behavior is replicated, the absolute volumetric water content with the new coefficients derived by the Oklahoma Mesonet (Scott, 2013) is significantly lower than before. For example it previously was 35% at the 5 cm level for wet conditions and more than 60% in dry conditions.
In order to satisfy the Atmospheric System Research (ASR) soil moisture needs on a meso-scale level at the Southern Great Plains (SGP) atmospheric observatory, a soil moisture value-added product (VAP) was developed using the current 30-minute-averaged product from the Oklahoma Mesonet (OKM). The Oklahoma Mesonet is a network of surface meteorology and soil moisture stations developed as a joint project between Oklahoma State University and the University of Oklahoma.
Since its creation in the early 1990's, the mesonet has created and maintained over 100 surface mesonet stations. The dense surface network of OKM provides a good representation of land surface/subsurface conditions over the region. However, the OKM product alone does not provide the information necessary to calculate soil moisture across the network.
Recently, a soil hydraulic parameter database (Meso-Soil Database) with extensive in situ validation was developed and published. We developed a soil moisture data product from the current 30-minute-averaged product from the OKM network of monitoring stations, using parameters from the Meso-Soil Database and the equations developed by Oklahoma Mesonet scientists.
References
Illston, B.G., J.B. Basara, C.A. Fiebrich, K.C. Crawford, E. Hunt, D.K. Fisher, R. Elliott, and K. Humes, 2008: Mesoscale Monitoring of Soil Moisture across a Statewide Network. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 25, 167–182, https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JTECHA993.1
Scott, B.L., T.E. Ochsner, B.G. Illston, C.A. Fiebrich, J.B. Basara, and A.J. Sutherland, 2013: New Soil Property Database Improves Oklahoma Mesonet Soil Moisture Estimates. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 30, 2585–2595, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-13-00084.1
