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Alice Springs Mulga Flux Data Collection

This dataset consists of measurements of the exchange of energy and mass between the surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer in semi-arid Mulga woodland, using eddy covariance techniques. <br /> <br /> The Alice Springs Mulga flux station is located on Pine Hill cattle station, near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. The woodland is characterized by the Acacia aneura canopy, which is 6.5m tall on average. Elevation of the site is 606m above sea level, and the terrain is flat. Mean annual precipitation at the nearby (45km distant) Bureau of Meteorology station is 305.9mm but ranges between 100mm in 2009 to 750mm in 2010. Predominant wind directions are from the southeast and east.The extent of the woodland is 11km to the east of the flux station and 16km to the south. The soil is red sandy clay (50:50 sand:clay) overlying a 49m deep water table. Pine Hill Station is a functioning cattle station that has been in operation for longer than 50 years.The instrument mast is 13.7m tall. Fluxes of heat, water vapour and carbon are measured using the open-path eddy covariance technique at 11.6m. Supplementary measurements above the canopy include temperature and humidity (11.6m), windspeed and wind direction (9.25m), downwelling and upwelling shortwave and longwave radiation (12.2m). Precipitation is monitored in a canopy gap (2.5m). Supplementary measurements within and below the canopy include barometric pressure (1m), wind speed (2m, 4.25m and 6.5m), and temperature and humidity (2m, 4.25m and 6m). Below ground soil measurements are made in bare soil, mulga, and understory habitats and include ground heat flux (0.08m), soil temperature (0.02m – 0.06m) and soil moisture (0 – 0.1m, 0.1 – 0.3m, 0.6 – 0.8m and 1.0 – 1.2m). Ancillary measurements include soil water and carbon fluxes, leaf water potential, leaf gas exchange, stem basal area, stem growth, litter production, leaf area index, stem hydraulic conductance, and carbon and water stable isotope ratios. The site was established in September 2010 in conjunction with the Woodforde River NGCRT Superscience Site and is managed by the University of Technology Sydney.

<br />For additional site information, see https://www.tern.org.au/tern-observatory/tern-ecosystem-processes/alice-mulga-supersite/ <br /><br /> This data is also available at http://data.ozflux.org.au .

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2010-09-03
Date (Publication)
2021-09-20
Date (Revision)
2025-12-10
Edition
1.0

Publisher

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Author

University of Technology Sydney - Cleverly, Jamie ()
15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
Ultimo
New South Wales
2007
Australia

Co-author

University of Technology Sydney - Eamus, Derek ()
15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
Ultimo
New South Wales
2007
Australia

Co-author

University of Technology Sydney - Faux, Ralph (Technical Officer)
15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
Ultimo
New South Wales
2007
Australia

Co-author

University of Technology Sydney - Grant, Nicole M (Site Technician)
15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
Ultimo
New South Wales
2007
Australia

Co-author

University of Technology Sydney - Li, Zheng ()
15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
Ultimo
New South Wales
2007
Australia
Website
https://www.tern.org.au/

Purpose
The purpose of the Alice Springs Mulga flux station is to : <br/> measure the exchanges of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between a semi-arid mulga (Acacia aneura) ecosystem and the atmosphere using micrometeorological techniques<br/> study ecosystem, hydrologic and ecophysiologic responses to rainfall variability<br/> evaluate the evapotranspiratory cost of assimilation<br/> study the partitioning of ecosystem metabolism between the mulga canopy, a seasonal mixed understory (C3 and C4, grass and shrub) and soil components<br/> utilise the measurements for paramterising a Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) model to evaluate climate change scenarios in North-Central Australia<br/> utilise the measurements for parameterising and validating remote sensing measurements over semi-arid mulga ecosystems<br/> utilise the measurements for parmaterising and validating the Community Atmosphere-Biosphere Land Exchange (CABLE) model<br/>
Credit
We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Credit
The TERN Alice Springs Mulga site is managed by the University of Technology Sydney, and is funded by TERN.
Status
On going

Point of contact

University of Technology Sydney - Cleverly, Jamie ()
15 Broadway, Ultimo, 2007, New South Wales, Australia
15 Broadway
Ultimo
New South Wales
2007
Australia
Topic category
  • Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Extent

Description
Pine Hill cattle station, near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2010-09-03

Vertical element

Minimum value
0.0
Maximum value
0.0
Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 3D
Title
Alice Springs Mulga SuperSite​
Website
Alice Springs Mulga SuperSite​

Related documentation

Title
Isaac, Peter et al., 2017. OzFlux data: network integration from collection to curation. Biogeosciences, 14(12). doi:10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017
Website
Isaac, Peter et al., 2017. OzFlux data: network integration from collection to curation. Biogeosciences, 14(12). doi:10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017

Related documentation

Title
Beringer, Jason et al., 2016. An introduction to the Australian and New Zealand flux tower network – OzFlux. Biogeosciences, 13(21). doi:10.5194/bg-13-5895-2016
Website
Beringer, Jason et al., 2016. An introduction to the Australian and New Zealand flux tower network – OzFlux. Biogeosciences, 13(21). doi:10.5194/bg-13-5895-2016

Related documentation

Title
Cleverly, J, N Boulain, R Villalobos-Vega, N Grant, R Faux, C Wood, PG Cook, Q Yu, A Leigh, and D Eamus, 2013. Dynamics of component carbon fluxes in a semi-arid Acacia woodland, central Australia. J. Geophys. Res.-Biogeosci., 118, 1168–1185.
Website
Cleverly, J, N Boulain, R Villalobos-Vega, N Grant, R Faux, C Wood, PG Cook, Q Yu, A Leigh, and D Eamus, 2013. Dynamics of component carbon fluxes in a semi-arid Acacia woodland, central Australia. J. Geophys. Res.-Biogeosci., 118, 1168–1185.

Related documentation

Title
Eamus, D, J Cleverly, N Boulain, N Grant, R Faux, and R Villalobos-Vega, 2013. Carbon and water fluxes in an arid-zone Acacia savanna woodland: An analyses of seasonal patterns and responses to rainfall events. Agric. For. Meteor., 182–183, 225–238.
Website
Eamus, D, J Cleverly, N Boulain, N Grant, R Faux, and R Villalobos-Vega, 2013. Carbon and water fluxes in an arid-zone Acacia savanna woodland: An analyses of seasonal patterns and responses to rainfall events. Agric. For. Meteor., 182–183, 225–238.

Related documentation

Maintenance and update frequency
Biannually
GCMD Science Keywords
  • BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
  • LAND PRODUCTIVITY
  • EVAPOTRANSPIRATION
  • TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
  • ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS
  • TURBULENCE
  • WIND SPEED
  • WIND DIRECTION
  • TRACE GASES/TRACE SPECIES
  • ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE
  • PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY ACTIVE RADIATION
  • LONGWAVE RADIATION
  • SHORTWAVE RADIATION
  • INCOMING SOLAR RADIATION
  • HEAT FLUX
  • AIR TEMPERATURE
  • PRECIPITATION AMOUNT
  • HUMIDITY
  • SOIL MOISTURE/WATER CONTENT
  • SOIL TEMPERATURE
ANZSRC Fields of Research
  • Atmospheric sciences
  • Climate change impacts and adaptation
  • Ecosystem function
  • Environmental management
  • Soil sciences
TERN Platform Vocabulary
  • Alice Springs Mulga Flux Station
TERN Instrument Vocabulary
  • Kipp&Zonen CNR4
  • Kipp&Zonen CNR1
TERN Parameter Vocabulary
  • mass concentration of carbon dioxide in air
  • Milligram per Cubic Metre
  • surface upward latent heat flux
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • downward heat flux at ground level in soil
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • surface downwelling longwave flux in air
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • surface upwelling longwave flux in air
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • surface downwelling shortwave flux in air
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • surface upwelling shortwave flux in air
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • thickness of rainfall amount
  • Millimetre
  • relative humidity
  • Percent
  • specific humidity
  • Kilogram per Kilogram
  • soil moisture content
  • Cubic Metre per Cubic Metre
  • air temperature
  • Degree Celsius
  • soil temperature
  • Degree Celsius
  • water vapor partial pressure in air
  • Kilopascal
  • water vapor saturation deficit in air
  • Kilopascal
  • wind from direction
  • Degree
  • wind speed
  • Metre per Second
  • surface air pressure
  • Kilopascal
  • surface net downward radiative flux
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • surface upward sensible heat flux
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • mass concentration of water vapor in air
  • Gram per Cubic Metre
  • surface upward flux of available energy
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • magnitude of surface downward stress
  • Kilograms per metre per square second
  • mole fraction of water vapor in air
  • Millimole per Mole
  • Monin-Obukhov length
  • Metre
  • specific humidity saturation deficit in air
  • Kilogram per Kilogram
  • eastward wind
  • Metre per Second
  • northward wind
  • Metre per Second
  • vertical wind
  • Metre per Second
  • ecosystem respiration
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • water evapotranspiration flux
  • Kilograms per square metre per second
  • gross primary productivity of biomass expressed as carbon
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • net ecosystem exchange
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • net ecosystem productivity
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • surface upward mole flux of carbon dioxide
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • surface friction velocity
  • Metre per Second
  • surface upward mass flux of carbon dioxide expressed as carbon due to emission from natural sources
  • Milligram per Cubic Metre
  • upward mole flux of carbon dioxide due inferred from storage
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
QUDT Units of Measure
  • Milligram per Cubic Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Millimetre
  • Percent
  • Kilogram per Kilogram
  • Cubic Metre per Cubic Metre
  • Degree Celsius
  • Degree Celsius
  • Kilopascal
  • Kilopascal
  • Degree
  • Metre per Second
  • Kilopascal
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Gram per Cubic Metre
  • Watt per Square Metre
  • Kilograms per metre per square second
  • Millimole per Mole
  • Metre
  • Kilogram per Kilogram
  • Metre per Second
  • Metre per Second
  • Metre per Second
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • Kilograms per square metre per second
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
  • Metre per Second
  • Milligram per Cubic Metre
  • Micromole per Square Metre Second
GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
  • Point Resolution
GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
  • 1 minute - < 1 hour
Keywords (Discipline)
  • AU-ASM
  • Mulga woodlands

Resource constraints

Use limitation
The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
File name
88x31.png
File description
CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
File type
png
Linkage
https://w3id.org/tern/static/cc-by/88x31.png

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Alternate title
CC-BY
Edition
4.0
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints
TERN services are provided on an “as-is” and “as available” basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br /><br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN.<br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified

Distribution Information

Distribution format

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia
Indooroopilly
Queensland
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
Catalog for NetCDF files

OnLine resource
ro-crate-metadata.json

Data quality info

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Other
If the data quality is poor, the data is filled from alternative sources. Filled data can be identified by the Quality Controls flags in the dataset. Quality control checks include (i) range checks for plausible limits, (ii) spike detection, (iii) dependency on other variables and (iv) manual rejection of date ranges. Specific checks applied to the sonic and IRGA data include rejection of points based on the sonic and IRGA diagnostic values and on either automatic gain control (AGC) or CO2 and H2O signal strength, depending upon the configuration of the IRGA. For more details, refer to Isaac et al (2017) in the Publications section, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017.<br> For further information about the software (PyFluxPro) used to process and quality control the flux data, see https://github.com/OzFlux/PyFluxPro/wiki.

Resource lineage

Statement
All flux raw data is subject to the quality control process OzFlux QA/QC to generate data from L1 to L6. Levels 3 to 6 are available for re-use. Datasets contain Quality Controls flags which will indicate when data quality is poor and has been filled from alternative sources. For more details, refer to Isaac et al (2017) in the Publications section, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017 .
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:4326

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 2D

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/888ba337-c58f-4f8c-9438-7c4356e947df

Title
TERN GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Point of contact

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/888ba337-c58f-4f8c-9438-7c4356e947df

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Date info (Creation)
2010-09-03T00:00:00.000000+00:00
Date info (Revision)
2025-12-10T10:02:50.375896+00:00

Metadata standard

Title
ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
Edition
1

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
Edition
1.0

Metadata standard

Title
ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
Edition
1.0
Title
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
Date (published)
2021
Edition
1.0

Identifier

Code
10.5281/zenodo.5652221
Website
https://github.com/ternaustralia/TERN-ISO19115/releases/tag/v1.0

 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

ANZSRC Fields of Research
Atmospheric sciences Climate change impacts and adaptation Ecosystem function Environmental management Soil sciences
GCMD Science Keywords
AIR TEMPERATURE ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE MEASUREMENTS BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES EVAPOTRANSPIRATION HEAT FLUX HUMIDITY INCOMING SOLAR RADIATION LAND PRODUCTIVITY LONGWAVE RADIATION PHOTOSYNTHETICALLY ACTIVE RADIATION PRECIPITATION AMOUNT SHORTWAVE RADIATION SOIL MOISTURE/WATER CONTENT SOIL TEMPERATURE TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS TRACE GASES/TRACE SPECIES TURBULENCE WIND DIRECTION WIND SPEED

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Associated resources

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