Abstract
Abstract. The Rollesbroich headwater catchment located in western Germany is a densely instrumented hydrological observatory and part of the TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories) initiative. The measurements acquired in this observatory present a comprehensive data set that contains key hydrological fluxes in addition to important hydrological states and properties. Meteorological data (i.e., precipitation, air temperature, air humidity, radiation components, and wind speed) are continuously recorded and actual evapotranspiration is measured using the eddy covariance technique. Runoff is measured at the catchment outlet with a gauging station. In addition, spatiotemporal variations in soil water content and temperature are measured at high resolution with a wireless sensor network (SoilNet). Soil physical properties were determined using standard laboratory procedures from samples taken at a large number of locations in the catchment. This comprehensive data set can be used to validate remote sensing retrievals and hydrological models, to improve the understanding of spatial temporal dynamics of soil water content, to optimize data assimilation and inverse techniques for hydrological models, and to develop upscaling and downscaling procedures of soil water content information. The complete data set is freely available online (http://www.tereno.net, doi:10.5880/TERENO.2016.001, doi:10.5880/TERENO.2016.004, doi:10.5880/TERENO.2016.003) and additionally referenced by three persistent identifiers securing the long-term data and metadata availability.
Highlights
Climate and land use changes are taking place on different spatial and temporal scales, affecting all environmental compartments
A network of integrated observation platforms has been established in the framework of the Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) initiative to investigate the consequences of global change on terrestrial ecosystems (Bogena et al, 2012; Zacharias et al, 2011)
Organic carbon (C) and total nitrogen (N) content were determined by a combination of standard laboratory analyses (ISO-10694, 1995) and mid-infrared spectroscopy (MIRS) using partial least square regression (PLSR) (Bornemann et al, 2008)
Summary
Climate and land use changes are taking place on different spatial and temporal scales, affecting all environmental compartments. Integrated observations of soil water content and the exchange of water and heat between the soil, vegetation, and atmosphere are critical to improving our understanding of the terrestrial system response to changes in climatic conditions and land management (Dirnbock et al, 2003; Foley et al, 1998; Hinzman et al, 2005; Refsgaard, 1997; Seneviratne et al, 2010; Guo and Lin, 2016) and serve as key data in validating remote sensing data products (e.g., Rötzer et al, 2014; Cosh et al, 2016) To this end, a network of integrated observation platforms has been established in the framework of the Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) initiative (funded by Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers) to investigate the consequences of global change on terrestrial ecosystems (Bogena et al, 2012; Zacharias et al, 2011). Information on soil physical properties and vegetation (i.e., leaf area index, LAI) useful for the parameterization of hydrological models is presented
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