2016 USDA-ARS Bushland Texas 15-minute research weather data

Authors: Evett, Steven - Steve; Copeland, Karen; Marek, Gary; Colaizzi, Paul; Brauer, David

Submitted to: Ag Data Commons
Publication Type: Database / Dataset
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/18/2018
Publication Date: 11/19/2018
Citation: Evett, S.R., Copeland, K.S., Marek, G.W., Colaizzi, P.D., Brauer, D.K. 2018. 2016 USDA-ARS Bushland Texas 15-minute research weather data. Ag Data Commons. https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1482548.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1482548

Interpretive Summary: Models are increasingly part of decision support systems used by farm advisors, agronomists, water districts and many others to calculate possible returns on investments in fertilizer, irrigation, and expensive seeds for new high-yielding crop varieties. However, there is a lack of accurate weather and crop water use data to support the development and testing of computer simulation models of crop growth, water and fertilizer use and yield. Therefore, scientists at the USDA-ARS Conservation and Production Research Laboratory, Bushland, TX, conducted studies in 2016 using very accurate methods to measure crop water use (evapotranspiration, ET) as affected by these factors. Due to their accuracy and completeness, the Bushland ET data sets are highly sought after by those charged with building and verifying the accuracy of these simulation models. The Bushland team gathered 15-minute weather data in 2016 and applied quality assurance and control procedures in order to provide accurate weather data in combination with the accurate ET data. This dataset contains those accurate weather data, which are useful in simulation model development and testing for accuracy. The weather data are freely available to the public on an Internet web site called the USDA NAL Ag Data Commons in order to be easily available to users, including model developers and testers, researchers, students, independent consultants and agricultural companies, and action agencies.

Technical Abstract: Weather mediates the interactions of soil, water, organic matter, plants and atmosphere in complex ways that impact the outcomes of agricultural and environmental research efforts. Accurate and representative weather data are thus important to most aspects of agricultural and environmental research. At the USDA ARS Conservation & Production Research laboratory (CPRL), Bushland, Texas, weather data on solar irradiance, air temperature and relative humidity, wind speed and precipitation were gathered on a 15-minute basis at a research weather station adjacent to the Bushland weighing lysimeter fields in 2016, as well as at other stations at the CPRL. This dataset contains 15-minute mean data for all days of 2016. Data are the result of quality assurance and quality control procedures published by the authors. Methods of quality assurance and control involved long-term planning for sensor calibration, maintenance and replacement, and daily and longer-term quality control efforts based on data stream analysis. Data are available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.15482/USDA.ADC/1482548.