The Washington Mesonet Site

The Oklahoma Mesonet is an automated network of 116 remote, meteorological stations across Oklahoma (Brock et al. 1995; Shafer et al. 2000).  Each station measures core parameters that include:  air temperature and relative humidity at 1.5 m, wind speed and direction at 10 m, atmospheric pressure, incoming solar radiation, rainfall, and bare and vegetated soil temperatures at 10 cm below ground level.  In addition, 101 sites measure soil moisture at 4 depths: 5, 25, 60, and 75 cm.  The Mesonet was installed during 1993 and became operational on 1 January 1994.  Since that time, over 2 billion observations have been archived at an archiving frequency that exceeds 99% of the possible observations. Mesonet data are collected and transmitted to a central point every 5 minutes where they are quality controlled, distributed and archived (Shafer et al. 2000).  Additional information concerning the Oklahoma Mesonet is located at http://www.mesonet.org.

The Washington Mesonet site (WASH) is located at the Kessler’s Farm Field Laboratory and routinely monitors soil and atmospheric conditions at the site.  In addition, the WASH site includes additional research instruments to measure the surface energy balance and the radiation balance.  For more information on the WASH site, the Oklahoma Mesonet, or obtaining Mesonet data for research, please contact Dr. Jeff Basara (jbasara@ou.edu).

Brock, F. V., K.C. Crawford, R. L. Elliott, G. W. Cuperus, S. J. Stadler, H. L. Johnson, and M.D. Eilts, 1995: The Oklahoma Mesonet: a technical overview.  J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 12, 5-19.

Shafer, M. A., C. A. Fiebrich, D. S. Arndt, S. E. Fredrickson, T. W. Hughes, 2000:  Quality assurance procedures in the Oklahoma Mesonet,  J. Atmos. Oceanic Tech., 17, 474-494.