Hourly Soil Wetness Measurements from Swiss Alpine Foreland

Hourly, quality-controlled soil wetness data from two distinct topographic sites in Switzerland's Napf area covers a three-year period from April 2019 to April 2022. The dataset includes volumetric water content, matric potential, temperature, and precipitation measurements at various installation depths. It was published by Wicki et al. in 2022 and is hosted by ENVIDAT.

Use Cases

• Analyze the relationship between precipitation (PREC) and subsequent changes in volumetric water content (VWC) to model infiltration rates on slopes.
• Compare matric potential (MP) and temperature (TEMP) readings between the 'Slope' and 'Flat' sites to assess topographic influence on soil suction.
• Use the homogenization flag to filter data for training machine learning models that predict soil saturation from sensor depth and type.
• Correlate normalized VWC values with installation depth to understand vertical soil moisture profiles under different weather conditions.

Strengths

• Data is aggregated to hourly values and has undergone quality control.
• Covers a continuous three-year study period from 2019-04-05 to 2022-04-30.
• Includes measurements from two distinct sites (Slope and Flat) with precise geographic coordinates.

Limitations

• The sample size (number of rows/sensors) is unknown, limiting assessment of statistical power.
• Geographic scope is limited to a single case study area in the Swiss Alpine Foreland.

Provenance

Source

ENVIDAT, associated with the publication Wicki et al. (2022) from NASA's Earthdata platform.

Collection Method

In-situ monitoring data collected from sensors at two sites, quality-controlled and aggregated to hourly values.

Time Range

2019-04-05 to 2022-04-30

Freshness

Data collection ended in April 2022; the dataset was last updated in January 2023.

Geography

Wasen i.E. in the Napf area, Switzerland. Specific coordinates: Slope (47.02486 N, 7.81960 E), Flat (47.02302 N, 7.81760 E).