CHINESE SOIL MOISTURE DATA

Total Soil Moisture Gravimetric Observations and Maps, 1981-99

Alan Robock and Haibin Li
Department of Environmental Sciences
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Suxia Liu and Xingguo Mo
Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing


1. DESCRIPTION OF THE DATA SET

The updated Chinese data set consists of 40 stations in China, for the period 1981-99. These data have been used by Li et al. (2004) to evaluate reanalysis soil moisture simulations. The 1981-91 data were used by Entin et al. (1999) to evaluate the Global Soil Wetness Project soil moisture model calculations, by Entin et al. (2000) to study the scales of soil moisture variations, and by Srinivasan et al. (2000) to evaluate AMIP revisit model simulations. Soil moisture observations were taken using the gravimetric technique for each 10-cm layer down to a depth of 1 m, with the first layer divided into two 5-cm layers. The data were observed three times a month on the 8, 18 and 28th days, for the full year. There is a variety of vegetation present in the network, but all of them fall into either the agriculture or grassland category.

Click here for a location map of the 40 stations

The data were originally recorded as percent wetness by mass of dry soil. Using soil density information available for each layer at each site, we determined the volumetric soil moisture. The layers were subsequently added together to give top 10 cm, top 50 cm, and top 1 m. Time series data corresponding to each individual layer are available for downloading in both GrADS and ASCII formats. GrADS files for spatial plots are also available. For users who are interested in plant available soil moisture, we also provided wilting level data corresponding to each soil layer.

Click here for a sample time series plot

Click here for a sample spatial plot

2. DATA SET IN ASCII FORMAT

These data are archived in the file 19yrchtsm.dat. Data are written as year, month, date, and 11 layer W with the FORTRAN

format(6X,11(1X,f6.2))
Each file contains data for the dates 8, 18, and 28 of each month from 1981 to 1999. Missing data are indicated by the code -99.99. A FORTRAN program to read these data is in the file read.f90. Wilting levels corresponding to each soil layer and top 1m of the soil are in the file 19yrchina_wilt.dat.

3. GrADS FILES

GrADS control and data files with time series for 10 cm, 50 cm and 1 m depths for all the 40 stations can be also downloaded for visualization. The files are 19yrchinasm.bdat and 19yrchinasm.ctl. The GrADS script file 19yrchinasm.gs can be used to display the time-series for each station. Also available are station data supported in GrADS. Example of getting averaged plant available soil moisture for the region can be displayed using the GrADS file statdisplay.gs. These files can be downloaded by clicking here.

 
Meanwhile, old 43 stations Chinese soil moisture data from 1981-91 are still available through the links:

ASCII files and BINARY GrADS files

4. REFERENCES

Entin, Jared, Alan Robock, Konstantin Y. Vinnikov, Shuang Qiu, Vladimir Zabelin, Suxia Liu, A. Namkhai, and Ts. Adyasuren, 1999: Evaluation of Global Soil Wetness Project soil moisture simulations. J. Meteorol. Soc. Japan, 77, 183-198. (Invited paper) ABSTRACT

Entin, Jared K., Alan Robock, Konstantin Y. Vinnikov, Steven E. Hollinger, Suxia Liu, and A. Namkai, 2000: Temporal and spatial scales of observed soil moisture variations in the extratropics. J. Geophys. Res., 105, 11,865-11,877. ABSTRACT , PDF file

Li, Haibin, Alan Robock, Suxia Liu, Xingguo Mo, and Pedro Viterbo, 2004:  Evaluation of reanalysis soil moisture simulations using updated Chinese soil moisture observations.  Submitted to J. Hydrometeorol.  PDF file

Srinivasan, G., Alan Robock, Jared K. Entin, Lifeng Luo, Konstantin Y. Vinnikov, Pedro Viterbo, and Participating AMIP Modeling Groups, 2000: Soil moisture simulations in revised AMIP models. J. Geophys. Res., 105, 26,635-26,644. ABSTRACT , PDF file

5. IF YOU HAVE ANY PROBLEMS OR QUESTIONS, PLEASE CONTACT US FOR ASSISTANCE:
 

Prof. Alan Robock OR Haibin Li
Department of Environmental Sciences   Department of Environmental Sciences
Rutgers University   Rutgers University
New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901 USA   New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901 USA
Phone: (732) 932-9478   Phone: (732) 932-3890
Fax: (732) 932-8644     
E-mail: robock@envsci.rutgers.edu   E-mail: hli@envsci.rutgers.edu

 

Prepared by Alan Robock (robock@envsci.rutgers.edu) and Haibin Li (hli@envsci.rutgers.edu)
Last updated on August 5, 2004