RUSWET-AGROCLIM

Multi-year Average of plant available soil moisture gravimetric observations and maps

Former Soviet Union

Data for agricultural fields with winter and spring cereal crops

Konstantin Vinnikov
Department of Meteorology, University of Maryland

Alan Robock
Department of Environmental Sciences
Rutgers University
 

February 13, 1997

1. DESCRIPTION OF THE DATA SET

This data set is the output of a system for monitoring of soil moisture at agricultural fields in the former Soviet Union. The data used here are multi-year averages of plant available water content in the soil layers 0-100 cm, 0-50 cm and 0-20 cm at agricultural fields with winter cereal crops and spring cereal crops (given separately) for 144 administrative districts of the Former Soviet Union (FSU). The measurements of six stations (on the average) were used for each district with equal weights. The period of observations is 1946-1980 for the western part and 1927-1982 for the eastern part of the FSU). All the initial data were retrieved and digitized from Kelchevskaya (1989) and Zhukov (1986).

SPATIAL DOMAIN: Agricultural regions of the Former Soviet Union.

SPATIAL RESOLUTION: On average, the area of each district is about 30,000 km2 (ranging from 10,000 to more than 100,000 km2).

TEMPORAL RESOLUTION: 10-11 days (3 measurements per month).

BASIS: Gravimetric soil moisture observations from about six hundred agrometeorological stations.

These data are stored in the files Data/dat.*. The * stands for the variables w100, w50, w20, s100, s50, s20, where the character "s" or "w" means that the data represent agricultural fields with "spring" or "winter" cereal crops. The "20", "50," or "100" refer to the depth of the soil layer in cm. Some misprints in the initial data have been corrected.

The files Data/dat.* for w100, w50, w20, s100, s50 and s20 have the Fortran format (x,i3,2x,f5.2,x,f6.2,x,i3,37f5.1). Each line in these files contains:

the district conventional number [INTEGER (i3)],

the latitude (°N) and longitude (°E) of the center of the district [REAL (f5.2,x,f6.2)],

37 values of plant available soil moisture in cm [REAL (37f5.1]. The first one is for December 28, the second value is for January 8, etc., 3 times per month (on the 8th, 18th and 28th of each month); the last value is for December 28 (repeated).

The list of the names of the 140 administrative districts of the Former Soviet Union, their station numbers which are used instead of station names in the GrADS station files, geographical coordinates, and areas are given in the file Data/station.list.

2. GrADS FILES

The Fortran program Prog/readagro2.f is designed for reading the initial data and for writing them as GrADS station files Grads/st.*. The GrADS station data descriptor files have names Grads/st.*.ctl. Station map files are Grads/sta.map.* .

The GrADS station data function OACRES with default parameters was used to interpolate the initial data into a 1x1° grid, using the GrADS exec Grads/run.write. The results of interpolation were written as the GrADS gridded files Grads/grd.*. Their GrADS descriptors are in Grads/grd.*.ctl.

3. CLIMATIC SOIL MOISTURE MAPS

Climatic maps of plant available soil moisture for the territory of the Former Soviet Union can be displayed using GrADS using the three execs: Grads/mp, Grads/mpc, Grads/mpc3.

The 'mp' exec displays in landscape mode both a contour map of soil moisture for each of variables and the district data. At the end of each exec, GrADS commands for drawing such maps for each date of observation are attached as comments.

The 'mpc' exec displays in landscape mode a color shaded map of soil moisture for the same variables. At the end of the exec, the GrADS commands for drawing such maps for each date of observation for each of the variables are attached as comments.

The 'mpc3' exec displays in portrait mode on one page three color shaded maps of plant available water content in the soil layers 0-100 cm, 0-50 cm, and 0-20 cm. At the end of the exec, the GrADS commands for drawing such maps for each date of observation are attached as comments.

You can use these GrADS files to write your own routines to display and analyze the data in many different ways.

Acknowledgments. This work has been supported by NASA grant NCC555 and NOAA grant NA56GPO212.


References

General description of Russian gravimetric soil moisture data in English:

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

Robock, A., K. Y. Vinnikov, C. A. Schlosser, N. A. Speranskaya, and Y. Xue, 1995: Use of midlatitude soil moisture and meteorological observations to validate soil moisture simulations with biosphere and bucket models. J. Climate, 8, 15-35. ABSTRACT

Vinnikov, K. Y. and I. B. Yeserkepova, 1991. Soil moisture: empirical data and model results. J. Climate, 4, 66-79.

Vinnikov, K. Y. , A. Robock, N. A. Speranskaya, and C. A. Schlosser, 1996: Scales of temporal and spatial variability of midlatitude soil moisture. J. Geophys. Res., 101, 7163-7174. ABSTRACT , PDF file

Recommended Russian publications and reference books:

Kelchevskaya, L. S., 1983: Soil moisture of the European part of USSR. Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 183 pp. (In Russian).

Kelchevskaya, L. S., Ed., 1989: Mean long term stores of productive water under winter and early spring cereals in districts, regions, republics and economic regions. Reference book. Vol. 2. Urals, Western and Eastern Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia. Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 65 pp. (in Russian).

Meshcherskaya, A. V., N. A. Boldyreva, and N. D. Shapaeva, 1982: District average plant available soil water storage and the depth of snow cover. Statistical analysis and its usage (some examples). Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 243 pp. (In Russian).

Zhukov, V. A., Ed., 1986: Mean long term stores of productive water under winter and early spring cereals in districts, regions, republics and economic regions. Reference book. Vol. 1. European part of the USSR. Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 122 pp. (in Russian).

For further information, please contact:

Dr. Konstantin Ya. Vinnikov OR Prof. Alan Robock
Department of Meteorology Department of Environmental Sciences
University of Maryland Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
College Park, Maryland 20742 USA New Brunswick, New Jersey 08901 USA
Phone: (301) 405-5382 Phone: (732) 932-9478
Fax: (301) 314-9482Fax: (732) 932-8644
E-mail: kostya@atmos.umd.edu E-mail: robock@envsci.rutgers.edu

 

TO DOWNLOAD THE DATA,
get the complete contents of each of the directories and subdirectories, click here.


Prepared by Alan Robock (robock@envsci.rutgers.edu)
Last updated on August 8, 2004