An hourly ground temperature dataset for 16 high-elevation sites (3493–4377 m a.s.l.) in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia (2017–2020)

This is a multiannual ground temperature dataset covering sixteen high elevation sites (3493-4377 m a.s.l.) in the Bale Mountains, southern Ethiopian Highlands

The dataset is described in detail in the corresponding data paper by Groos et al. 2021 (https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2021-268)

The repository contains a readme file ("readme.txt"), a GeoPackage ("Data_Logger_Location.gpkg"), a thermal infrared time-lapse video ("thermal_infrared_time-lapse_video.mp4"), and two sub-folders: "raw_data" and "processed_data"

The GeoPackage provides information on the location and environmental setting of each logger and can be easily opened and displayed in a Geographic Information System. The coordinate reference system is WGS84 / Geographic (EPSG code: 4326).

The thermal infrared time-lapse video visualises the phenomenon of nocturnal cold air ponding in the Bale Mountains (for more information see Fig. C1 in the corresponding data paper).

The folder "raw_data" contains the original logfiles of all GT and TM data loggers (see Table 1) in a tab-delimited text format with the logger ID and download date encoded in the file name. The date format of the GT data loggers is YYYY.MM.DD hh:mm:ss East Africa Time (EAT). The date format of the TM data loggers is DD.MM.YYYY hh:mm:ss EAT.

The folder "processed_data" contains the followings two files:

"Information_Sheet_Data_Gap-Filling.ods": An overview table with relevant information regarding the filling of (longer) data gaps in the ground temperature time series. The gap-filling procedure based on simple linear regression models is described individually for each logger.

"Hourly_Ground_Temperatures.csv": Compilation of hourly ground temperature data from all GT and TM data loggers installed in the Bale Mountains (see Table 1 in the data paper). The dataset covers the period from 1 January 2017 to 31 January 2020, but individual time series may be shorter or contain data gaps (see Fig. 3 in the data paper). We use the international date format (ISO 8601): YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss EAT. The following numerical indices (or a combination of them) in the columns starting with "Flag_*" are used to provide additional information on the post-processing of each hourly measurement of each time series:

0 no data available
1 original data (no post-processing)
2 data interpolated to full hour
3 erroneous data corrected
4 erroneous data removed
5 data gap-filled

The meteorological data from the ten automatic weather stations in the Bale Mountains, which are operated since 2017, are currently post-processed and analysed in the framework of the DFG Research Unit 2358 "The Mountain Exile Hypothesis". The data will be made publicly available at some point in the future. However, individual access to the weather station data may be granted before on request to the coordination board of the research unit ([e-mail]).