A transition from analog to the current electronic precipitation gauges began in 2011 and continued through 2017 at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. The historic precipitation network of 7 weighing recording rain gauges and 24 standard rain gauges (Bailey et al. 2003) was downsized to minimize redundancy and reduce monitoring costs (Green et al. 2018). Ten NOAH IV Total Precipitation Gauges (ETI Instrument Systems, Inc.) remain as core precipitation collection points and serve to extend the long-term precipitation record at Hubbard Brook (1956 - ongoing). The electronic ETI gauges were installed in original precipitation clearings maintained to uniform standards with all trees beyond a 40-degree angle measured from the base of the rain gauge removed. Altar wind shields were installed around the ETIs to minimize precipitation loss from wind and follow protocol originally established for manual precipitation instruments. The ETI buckets are emptied as needed after accumulating rain events and ethylene glycol (antifreeze) added in winter months to prevent the collection cylinder from cracking with frozen precipitate. The sensor data are monitored daily for electronic issues. Rain gages are mounted on stands at least 4 feet above the ground to avoid being buried by snow in the winter. The gauges collect data at 15-minute intervals and missing values are gap-filled with the median precipitation sum of all other stations during the same interval.
The 15-minute weighted precipitation for each of nine research watersheds is estimated with the electronic gauges deployed at only 10 sites. The weighted contribution of each gauge to each watershed is estimated with an Inverse Distance Weighting approach (Green et al. 2018), and the weights for the south- and north-facing watersheds are included in the files idw_weights_new_sfw.csv and idw_weights_nfw.csv.
These data were gathered at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in North Woodstock, NH, which is operated and maintained by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.
PUBLICATIONS RELATED TO THIS DATASET:
Bailey, Amey Schenck; Hornbeck, James W.; Campbell, John L.; Eagar, Christopher. 2003. Hydrometeorological database for Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest: 1955-2000. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-305. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station. 36 p.
Green, M.B., Campbell, J.L., Yanai, R.D., Bailey, S.W., Bailey, A.S., Grant, N., Halm, I., Kelsey, E.P. and Rustad, L.E., 2018. Downsizing a long-term precipitation network: Using a quantitative approach to inform difficult decisions. PLoS one, 13(5), p.e0195966.