##Metadata for Cedar_ib_ground_temp_wy2011-2014.csv
##Contact:  Susan E. Dickerson-Lange (dickers@uw.edu), University of Washington
##Updated: 6/1/2015
##Title: Cedar River Watershed iButton Ground Temperature 
##PI:  Jessica D. Lundquist (jdlund@uw.edu), University of Washington 
##Funding:  National Science Foundation, CBET-0931780

Summary:
Hourly ground temperature observed via grids of self-recording temperature sensors (Maxim DS 1922L thermochrons, hereafter “iButtons”), deployed at approximately 5 to 10 m spacing in 40 m x 40 m experimental forest plots. Each iButton was wrapped in self-sealing plastic (Glad Press 'n Seal) and buried 1-2 cm below the ground surface within approximately 20 cm of a location marker.  See location metadata for coordinates of each location and silvicultural treatments/forest types represented by each plot.  Observations were collected from water year 2011 through water year 2014, with new locations added in water year 2013.  Records are not continuous at each location because sensors were deployed in the summer/fall and retrieved in the summer/fall, and in some cases there was a gap during which no instrument was present.  In other cases, the record is not continuous because an instrument was not deployed (e.g. Mount Gardner gap plot after wy 2012), or was lost or failed.  Each Location ID (column header, e.g. IB20) is unique to a single location in an experimental plot in the Cedar River Municipal Watershed. However, note that the exact location of the sensor relative to the location marker (a ~20 cm pvc pole) varied by year, as did the environmental conditions (e.g. a tree fell on location IB17 (Bear Creek control plot, position 20-20) during water year 2013.

Accuracy & Quality Control:
These are raw data that have been compiled for time series continuity.  Derived time series of snow presence are subject to quality control, during which we removed locations with obvious problems before inferring snow presence.  Therefore, some locations are missing from the derived products, but all locations are included with the temperature dataset.  Also, note that these sensors are launched and stopped in the office, so the ends of each data record do not represent environmental conditions at the location ID.  Additionally, in some cases a new instrument was deployed during the retrieval of the previous year's instrument, in which case there is a continuous temperature record, but the transition between instruments is not noted, except in the original field notes.  These artifacts have not been removed from the data.  These data were collected to derive snow presence, so the non-snow covered times of the year were disregarded in analysis.

Location:
Cedar River Municipal Watershed
Approximate Coordinates:  47° 20’ N, 121° 32’ W  (datum:  WGS 1984)
near North Bend, Washington, USA  (King County)

Date(s) of Data Collection:  
2010 through summer 2014 (water years 2011-2014)

Data Citation:
Dickerson-Lange, S.E., Lutz, J.A., Gersonde, R., Martin, K.A., Forsyth, J., and J.D. Lundquist (2015, in preparation for Water Resources Research), Field observations of distributed snow depth and snow duration within diverse forest structures in a maritime mountain watershed

Variables and Units:
LocalDateTime - Full time stamp in PDT/PST, yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss tz
UTCOffset - Hours difference from UTC Time
WaterYear - Water year, e.g. Water Year 2013 = 2012-10-01 through 2013-09-30.  Based on local time.
DateTimeUTC - Full time stamp in UTC, yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss tz
Year - Calendar year, yyyy (UTC)
Month - Calendar month (UTC)
Day - Calendar day (UTC)
Hour - Hour of day, midnight = 0 (UTC)
Julian - Julian day of the year (UTC)
IB1 through IB158 - Ground temperature sampled at each timestep (0.5 degree resolution), where the header refers to a sample location ID that can be used to look up the metadata for the location.  NA = no data.   Degrees Celcius.