Soil Moisture Data Collected During the Forest Ecosystem Dynamics - Multisensor Aircraft Campaign

Forest Ecosystem Dynamics Multisensor Airborne Campaign (FED MAC): Soil Moisture The Biospheric Sciences Branch (formerly Earth Resources Branch) within the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and associated University investigators are involved in a research program entitled Forest Ecosystem Dynamics (FED) which is fundamentally concerned with vegetation change of forest ecosystems at local to regional spatial scales (100 to 10,000 meters) and temporal scales ranging from monthly to decadal periods (10 to 100 years). The nature and extent of the impacts of these changes, as well as the feedbacks to global climate, may be addressed through modeling the interactions of the vegetation, soil, and energy components of the boreal ecosystem. Gravimetric soil moisture was sampled on a 200x200m grids at two sites at the Northern Experimental Forest: 1) the radar tower site, and 2) the hemlock site. Plots were marked with centers at every 50 feet for a total of 16 plots at each site. Plot centers were located and triplicate samples were taken representing topographic low and high areas across the plot. Samples of the surface mineral soil (below the organic mat), and at 5 and 15 cm were taken. The percent water by weight is given.