Arcturus Flux Tower Measurements of Greenhouse Gases in Queensland

A collection of flux tower measurements of energy and mass exchange between the surface and the atmospheric boundary layer using eddy covariance techniques. It was collected from June 2011 to early 2014 at a station 48 km southeast of Emerald, Queensland, as part of a project between Geoscience Australia and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research. The processed data includes gap-filled Net Ecosystem Exchange partitioned into Gross Primary Productivity and Ecosystem Respiration.

Use Cases

• Analyze the temporal relationship between Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) and supplementary measurements like temperature, humidity, and rainfall.
• Partition Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (ER) from NEE data to model carbon dynamics in mixed grassland and cropland ecosystems.
• Correlate fluxes of methane and carbon dioxide with soil measurements such as soil heat flux, moisture, and temperature.
• Study the impact of land use types, specifically tussock grasslands and crop lands with fallow periods, on measured greenhouse gas fluxes.

Strengths

• Data processed using the established PyFluxPro (v3.4.17) software as described by Isaac et al. (2017).
• Includes a final, gap-filled product for key variables like Net Ecosystem Exchange.
• Measurements span nearly three years, from June 2011 to early 2014.
• Comprehensive supplementary measurements including temperature, humidity, windspeed, wind direction, rainfall, net radiation, and soil parameters.

Limitations

• The temporal coverage is limited to a specific historical period (2011-2014) and may not reflect current conditions.
• The dataset is geographically specific to a single site in Queensland, Australia, limiting broader spatial generalizability.
• The available file formats (HTML, PNG) suggest the primary data may be embedded in reports or figures, not as a structured, machine-readable table.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network's Data Discovery, via data_gov_au.

Collection Method

Flux tower measurements using the open-path eddy covariance technique, processed with PyFluxPro software.

Time Range

June 2011 to early 2014.

Freshness

The dataset metadata was last updated in March 2026, but the underlying data collection ended in early 2014.

Geography

Arcturus greenhouse gas monitoring station, 48 km southeast of Emerald, Queensland, Australia (elevation ~170 m).