North Temperate Lakes LTER: High Frequency Water Temperature Data - Sparkling Lake Raft 1989 - current

The instrumented raft on Sparkling Lake is equipped with a thermistor chain that measures water temperature from depths ranging from the surface to 18m at intervals from 0.5 to 3m throughout the water column. The surface temperature sensors are attached to floats so that they are as close to the surface as feasible. The raft on Sparkling Lake is also equipped with a dissolved oxygen sensor and meteorological sensors that provide fundamental information on lake thermal structure, weather conditions, evaporation rates, and lake metabolism. Estimating the flux of solutes to and from lakes requires accurate water budgets. Evaporation rates are a critical component of the water budget of lakes. Data from the instrumented raft on Sparkling Lake includes micrometeorological parameters from which evaporation can be calculated. Raft measurements of relative humidity and air temperature (2 m height), wind velocity (1, 2, and 3 m heights), and water temperatures are combined with measurements of total long-wave and short-wave radiation data from a nearby shore station to determine evaporation by the energy budget technique. Comparable evaporation estimates from mass transfer techniques are calibrated against energy budget estimates to produce a lake-specific mass transfer coefficient for use in estimating evaporation rates Sampling Frequency: one minute; averaged to hourly and daily values as well as higher resolution values such as 2 min and 10 min. Number of sites: 1 Please consult NTL's website for information on experimental lake manipulations and the DNR's website for management activities