Delta-X Sediment Grain Size and Concentration in Atchafalaya River 2019-2021

Delta-X project sediment data provides grain size distribution, concentration, and associated water measurements from the Atchafalaya River and Terrebonne Basins in Louisiana. The dataset includes suspended and bed sediment samples collected during Spring and Fall 2021 campaigns, plus an October 2019 campaign, using Van Dorn and Ponar samplers. This Version 3 update from ORNL_CLOUD incorporates more samples and reprocessed laser diffraction analyses.

Use Cases

• Modeling sediment flux and deposition rates using grain size distribution and total sediment concentration columns.
• Analyzing relationships between flow conditions and sediment characteristics via paired water temperature, flow velocity, and depth measurements.
• Comparing suspended versus bed sediment properties for understanding transport mechanics.
• Calibrating remote sensing or hydrological models for the Wax Lake Delta region using in-situ field campaign data.
• Studying seasonal variation in sediment dynamics across Spring 2021, Fall 2021, and 2019 sampling periods.

Strengths

• Data spans multiple field campaigns across distinct seasons (Spring 2021, Fall 2021, and October 2019), enabling temporal analysis.
• Includes paired physical measurements such as sediment concentration, grain size, water temperature, flow velocity, salinity, and depth for each sample.
• Version 3 represents a reprocessing with optimized sediment optical properties for laser diffraction grain size distributions.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA EarthData and Data.gov signals recognized importance and institutional backing.

Limitations

• Critical metadata conflicts exist: the row count, total sample size, and specific column names are unknown across all provided sources.
• License is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without explicit terms.
• The most recent update date conflicts between platforms (2026-03 13 vs. 2021-08-24).

Provenance

Source

ORNL_CLOUD for NASA's Delta-X project.

Collection Method

Samples collected from a boat using Van Dorn sampler for suspended sediment and Ponar bed sampler for bed sediment.

Time Range

2019-10 to 2021-08-22

Freshness

2026-03-13 03:10:44.105824

Geography

Atchafalaya River and Terrebonne Basins, specifically main channels and interior of Mike Island in the Wax Lake Delta, Louisiana, and site CRMS0421.