A distributed temperature profiling system for vertically and laterally dense acquisition of soil and snow temperature

Dafflon, Baptiste; Wielandt, Stijn; Lamb, John; McClure, Patrick; Shirley, Ian; Uhlemann, Sebastian; Wang, Chen; Fiolleau, Sylvain; Brunetti, Carlotta; Akins, Franklin H.; Fitzpatrick, John; Pullman, Samuel; Busey, Robert; Ulrich, Craig; Peterson, John; Hubbard, Susan S.

doi:10.5194/tc-16-719-2022

A distributed temperature profiling system for vertically and laterally dense acquisition of soil and snow temperature

Journal Article · Wed Mar 02 23:00:00 EST 2022 · The Cryosphere (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-719-2022· OSTI ID:1847442

; Wielandt, Stijn; Lamb, John; McClure, Patrick; Shirley, Ian; Uhlemann, Sebastian; Wang, Chen; ; Brunetti, Carlotta; Akins, Franklin H.; Fitzpatrick, John; Pullman, Samuel; Busey, Robert; Ulrich, Craig; Peterson, John; Hubbard, Susan S.

Abstract. Measuring soil and snow temperature with high vertical and lateral resolution is critical for advancing the predictive understanding of thermal and hydro-biogeochemical processes that govern the behavior of environmental systems. Vertically resolved soil temperature measurements enable the estimation of soil thermal regimes, frozen-/thawed-layer thickness, thermal parameters, and heat and/or water fluxes. Similarly, they can be used to capture the snow depth and the snowpack thermal parameters and fluxes. However, these measurements are challenging to acquire using conventional approaches due to their total cost, their limited vertical resolution, and their large installation footprint. This study presents the development and validation of a novel distributed temperature profiling (DTP) system that addresses these challenges. The system leverages digital temperature sensors to provide unprecedented, finely resolved depth profiles of temperature measurements with flexibility in system geometry and vertical resolution. The integrated miniaturized logger enables automated data acquisition, management, and wireless transfer. A novel calibration approach adapted to the DTP system confirms the factory-assured sensor accuracy of ±0.1 ∘C and enables improving it to ±0.015 ∘C. Numerical experiments indicate that, under normal environmental conditions, an additional error of 0.01 % in amplitude and 70 s time delay in amplitude for a diurnal period can be expected, owing to the DTP housing. We demonstrate the DTP systems capability at two field sites, one focused on understanding how snow dynamics influence mountainous water resources and the other focused on understanding how soil properties influence carbon cycling. Results indicate that the DTP system reliably captures the dynamics in snow depth and soil freezing and thawing depth, enabling advances in understanding the intensity and timing in surface processes and their impact on subsurface thermohydrological regimes. Overall, the DTP system fulfills the needs for data accuracy, minimal power consumption, and low total cost, enabling advances in the multiscale understanding of various cryospheric and hydro-biogeochemical processes.

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Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-05CH11231

OSTI ID:: 1847442

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1885456

Journal Information:: The Cryosphere (Online), Journal Name: The Cryosphere (Online) Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 16; ISSN 1994-0424

Publisher:: Copernicus GmbHCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: Germany

Language:: English

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A distributed temperature profiling method for assessing spatial variability in ground temperatures in a discontinuous permafrost region of Alaska

Journal Article · Wed Nov 06 23:00:00 EST 2019 · The Cryosphere (Online) · OSTI ID:1580972

A distributed temperature profiling system for vertically and laterally dense acquisition of soil and snow temperature

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