Data Archive for the PSWC Meteorological Tower, Lubbock, Texas

Authors: Stout, John

Submitted to: Mendeley Data
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/6/2020
Publication Date: 8/6/2020
Citation: Stout, J.E. 2020. Data Archive for the PSWC Meteorological Tower, Lubbock, Texas. Mendeley Data.

Interpretive Summary: Research in the biological and physical sciences requires basic information about the environment in which experiments are conducted. Meteorological stations, such as the PSWC Met Tower, provide an important source of valuable information regarding the microclimate of the atmospheric surface layer. Agricultural producers of the Southern High Plains raise livestock and grow crops within the atmospheric surface layer where plants and animals interact directly with the atmosphere. Knowledge of air temperature, incoming radiation, precipitation, wind speed, and wind direction are examples of important climatic factors that can influence crop growth, evapotranspiration, animal health, soil moisture and soil health in general. To obtain this critical climatic information each scientist could construct their own meteorological station; however, it is much more efficient to build a single station that can provide basic weather data to all scientists and technicians engaged in basic research. It is for this reason that the PSWC Met Tower was constructed.

Technical Abstract: In late September 2000, the PSWC Meteorological Tower was erected in the fields to the west of the USDA-ARS Plant Stress and Water Conservation (PSWC) Laboratory at 3810 4th Street, Lubbock, Texas. 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, starting in September 28, 2000. 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 webserver 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 or to other researchers. The goal of this publication is to partially restore public access to archived data.