Texas Water Observatory: A distributed network for monitoring water, energy, and carbon cycles under variable climate and land use on gulf coast plains

Authors: MOHANTY, BINAYAK - Texas A&M University; MBABAZI, DEANROY - Texas A&M University; MILLER, GRETCHEN - Texas A&M University; MOORE, GEORGIANNE - Texas A&M University; EVERETT, MARK - Texas A&M University; RAJAN, NITHYA - Texas A&M University; MORGAN, CRISTINE - Soil Health Institute; GAUR, NANDITA - University Of Georgia; SEHGAL, VINIT - Texas A&M University; SEDAGHATDOOST, AMIR - Texas A&M University; HONG, MINKI - Texas A&M University; KATHURIA, DHRUVA - Texas A&M University; DESHPANDE, AJINKYA - Texas A&M University; SINGH, SIDDHARTH - University Of Illinois; MARTIN, MICHAEL - Texas A&M University; CALABRESE, SALAVATORE - Texas A&M University; MISHRA, DEBASISH - Texas A&M University; SINGH, RISHAB - Texas A&M University; CHUN, BEOMSEOK - Texas A&M University; SOUZA, RODOLFO - Texas A&M University; Smith, Douglas; JONES, CURTISS - Us Fish And Wildlife Service

Submitted to: Journal of Hydrometeorology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/4/2024
Publication Date: 11/1/2024
Citation: Mohanty, B., Mbabazi, D., Miller, G., Moore, G., Everett, M., Rajan, N., Morgan, C., Gaur, N., Sehgal, V., Sedaghatdoost, A., Hong, M., Kathuria, D., Deshpande, A., Singh, S., Martin, M., Calabrese, S., Mishra, D., Singh, R., Chun, B., Souza, R., Smith, D.R., Jones, C. 2024. Texas Water Observatory: A distributed network for monitoring water, energy, and carbon cycles under variable climate and land use on gulf coast plains. Journal of Hydrometeorology. https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0201.1.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1175/jhm-d-23-0201.1

Interpretive Summary: The Texas Water Observatory was established as a distributed state-of-the-art field observatory network in the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. This network was designed to better understand water, energy and carbon cycles across this broad landscape using more than 300 advanced real-time sensors. This manuscript presents the overarching vision of the Texas Water Observatory, site design, instrument specifications, data collection and quality control protocols and provides examples of water, energy and carbon budgets. The Texas Water Observatory provides a testbed that is invaluable for evaluating process driven critical zone science leading to improved natural resource management and decision support across spatial and temporal scales.

Technical Abstract: In the Gulf Coastal Plains of Texas, a state-of-the-art distributed network of field observatories, known as the Texas Water Observatory (TWO), has been developed to better understand the water, energy, and carbon cycles across the critical zone (encompassing aquifers, soils, plants, and atmosphere) at different space and time scales. Using more than 300 advanced real-time / near-real time sensors, this observatory monitors high-frequency water, energy, and carbon storage and fluxes in the Brazos River corridor, which are critical for coupled hydrologic, biogeochemical, and land-atmosphere process understanding in the region. TWO provides a regional resource for better understanding and/or managing agriculture, water resources, ecosystems, biodiversity, disasters, health, energy, and weather/climate. TWO infrastructure spans land uses (traditional/aspirational cultivation agriculture, range/pasture, native/managed prairie, bottomland hardwood forest, and wetland), landforms (low-relief erosional uplands to depositional lowlands), and across climatic and geologic gradients of central Texas. Here, we present the overarching vision of TWO, site design, instrumentation specification, data collection and quality control protocol, and provide examples of multi-site water, energy, and carbon budget. Data include evapotranspiration, carbon fluxes, radiation budget, weather, profile soil moisture and soil temperature, soil hydraulic properties, hydrogeophysical surveys, groundwater levels and groundwater quality reported at TWO primary sites for 2018-2020 (with certain data gaps). In conjunction with various earth observing remote sensing and legacy databases, TWO provides a master testbed to evaluate many process-driven or data-driven critical zone science leading to improved natural resource management and decision support at different space and time scales.