Top Soil Water and temperature study at Meckering

Data was collected for validation of APSIM-SWIM modelling of soil moisture in shallow (< 200 mm) soils layers. Datasets containing moisture data for fine scale layers (less than 100 mm) are very scarce but integral to ground truthing modelling of soil moisture near the surface.
The data was collected using SMT-100 soil moisture probes, Thermochron ibutton DS1923 Temperature and humidity loggers, Thermochron ibutton DS1923 Temperature and tipping bucket rain guage. The SMT-100 soil moisture probe uses a Time Domain Transmission (TDT) technology. The SMT-100 determines the volumetric water content and the soil temperature. The probes and/or ibuttons were placed at 1cm, 2cm, 3cm, 5cm, 7cm, 10cm, 15cm and 20cm at 2 field sites. The sites were at Merredin in a red clay and at Meckering in a grey sand.