North Temperate Lakes LTER: High Frequency Meteorological and Dissolved Oxygen Data - Sparkling Lake Raft 1989 - current

The instrumented raft on Sparkling Lake is equipped with a D-Opto dissolved oxygen
sensor, a thermistor chain, 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 ( at 1, 2, and 3 m heights; but beginning in 2008, only at 2 m)
,and water temperatures (from thermistors placed throughout the water column at intervals
varying from 0.5 to 3m) 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. After correcting for flux to or from the atmosphere and
vertical mixing within the water column, high frequency measurements of dissolved gases such
as carbon dioxide and oxygen can be used to estimate gross primary productivity,
respiration, and net ecosystem productivity, the basic components of whole lake metabolism.
Other parameters measured include precipitation, wind direction (beginning in 2008), and
barometric pressure (beginning in 2008). 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