2013/05/15 by Kun Yang, Jun Qin, Long Zhao +9 · 414 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Climate change and permafrost #Computer science #Cryospheric studies and observations #Data logger #Environmental science #Geography #Geology #Hydrology (agriculture) #Hydrometeorology #Meteorology #Moisture #Plateau (mathematics) #Precipitation #Remote sensing #Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing #Soil carbon #Soil science #Soil texture #Soil water #Water content
paper · doi:10.1175/bams-d-12-00203.1
published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 94(12), 1907-1916 (American Meteorological Society)
openalex publication_date 2013/05/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Multisphere interactions over the Tibetan Plateau directly impact its surrounding climate and environment at a variety of spatiotemporal scales. Remote sensing and modeling are expected to provide hydrometeorological data needed for these process studies, but in situ observations are required to support their calibration and validation. For this purpose, we have established a dense monitoring network on the central Tibetan Plateau to measure two state variables (soil moisture and temperature) at three spatial scales (1.0°, 0.3°, and 0.1°) and four soil depths (0–5, 10, 20, and 40 cm). The experimental area is characterized by low biomass, high soil moisture dynamic range, and typical freeze–thaw cycle. The network consists of 56 stations with their elevation varying over 4470–4950 m. As auxiliary parameters of this network, soil texture and soil organic carbon content are measured at each station to support further studies. To guarantee continuous and high-quality data, tremendous efforts have been made to protect the data-logger from soil water intrusion, to calibrate soil moisture sensors, and to upscale the point measurements. As the highest soil moisture network above sea level in the world, our network meets the requirement for evaluating a variety of soil moisture products and for soil moisture scaling analyses. It also directly contributes to the soil–water–ice–air–ecosystem interaction studies on the third pole. The data will be publicized via the International Soil Moisture Network and the recent 2-yr data will become accessible soon.