Data Archive for the PSWC Meteorological Tower, Lubbock, Texas

Published: 6 August 2020| Version 1 | DOI: 10.17632/4x8wghm85p.1
Contributor:
John E. Stout

Description

In late September 2000, the PSWC Meteorological Tower was erected in the fields about 300 m to the west of the USDA-ARS Plant Stress and Water Conservation (PSWC) Laboratory at 3810 4th Street, Lubbock, Texas (33.593508 -101.897688). The primary goal of this project was to provide weather data to complement ongoing field research at the PSWC Lab and to provide an additional source of climatic data for the Southern High Plains region. The system has collected a continuous record of daily, hourly, and 5-minute data for nearly 20 years. Instrumentation and the tower structure were initially purchased through a cooperative agreement with Texas Tech University. USDA-ARS technicians James Golden, Richard Hopson and Dean Holder poured the concrete foundation, erected the tower, mounted all of the instruments, and installed a dedicated communication cable that runs beneath the ground from the weather yard to the PSWC Lab. The system is currently maintained by Dean Holder. Measured meteorological variables include wind velocity, relative humidity, air temperature, precipitation, atmospheric pressure, and soil temperatures at 4-inch and 8-inch depths. Wind velocity is measured at two heights with anemometers mounted at 2 m and 10 m. Precipitation is measured with two tipping-bucket rain gauges, one of which is gently heated during cold icy weather. A Class A evaporation pan was added in June of 2002, equipped with an Analog Output Evaporation Gauge, which is used to determine the evaporation rate by measuring the changing water level in the evaporation pan. Prior to June of 2020, data was collected every hour and provided to the public through a website, which was automatically updated each hour; however, the web server was shut down on June 3, 2020. Today, data is collected each hour and remains on a lab computer that is inaccessible to the public. The goal of this publication is to restore public access to archived data. The following folders contain raw data files collected from 29 September 2000 to 31 December 2019. Each file contains data collected during a specific year in comma-delimited text format. Files can be downloaded and opened with a spreadsheet application as comma-delimited text. If opened properly, titles will appear above each column of measured values with units provided beneath each title. Please direct any questions to john.stout@usda.gov

Files

Institutions

USDA Agricultural Research Service

Categories

Boundary Layer Meteorology, Weather

Licence