Skip to main content
ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Tucson, Arizona » SWRC » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #201419
Title: Long-term meteorological and soil hydrology database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States 1844

Author
item Keefer, Timothy
item Moran, Mary
item PAIGE, G. - UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING

Submitted to: Water Resources Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/20/2007
Publication Date: 3/21/2008
Citation: Keefer, T.O., Moran, M.S., Paige, G.B. 2008. Long-term meteorological and soil hydrology database, Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, United States. Water Resources Research, Vol. 44, W05S07, doi:10.1029/2006WR005702.

Interpretive Summary: The USDA-ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center has accumulated weather data and soil-dynamics data over a seventeen year (1990-2006) period at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed in southeastern Arizona. Data have been acquired at multiple locations including three automated weather stations, five soil-profile trench sites and nineteen locations dispersed across the watershed co-located with recording raingages. Weather elements measured at the weather stations include air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation, net radiation, photosynthetically active radiation and barometric pressure. Soil-dynamic properties measured at the weather stations, trenches and raingages include soil moisture, soil temperature, soil-heat flux and soil-surface temperature. Weather elements consist of two sub-daily sampling periods, one hour from 1990 to 1996 and 20 minute from 1996 to current. Soil-dynamics records are of multiple sampling frequencies ranging from bi-weekly to 20 minute, at surface, near-surface (5 cm) or in soil profiles to 2 m. This dataset offers researchers access to valuable information for management, modeling and analysis of the hydrometeorology of rangelands of the southwestern US. These data can be accessed from the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southwest Watershed Research Center database ftp site (ftp://www-ftp.tucson.ars.ag.gov/databases).

Technical Abstract: A seventeen year (1990-2006) meteorological and soil-dynamics database has been developed for the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed in southeastern Arizona. Data have been acquired at multiple locations including three automated weather stations, five soil-profile trench sites and nineteen locations dispersed across the watershed co-located with recording raingages. Meteorological elements measured at the weather stations include air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, wind direction, solar radiation, net radiation, photosynthetically active radiation and barometric pressure. Soil-dynamic properties measured at the weather stations, trenches and raingages include soil moisture, soil temperature, soil-heat flux and soil-surface temperature. Weather elements consist of two sub-daily sampling periods, one hour from 1990 to 1996 and 20 minute from 1996 to current. Soil-dynamics records are of multiple sampling frequencies ranging from bi-weekly to 20 minute, at surface, near-surface (5 cm) or in soil profiles to 2 m. These data can be accessed from the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Southwest Watershed Research Center database ftp site (ftp://www-ftp.tucson.ars.ag.gov/databases).