FIFE: Soil Hydraulic Conductivity and Matric Flux Potential

Soil hydraulic conductivity, matric flux potential, and soil depth data were collected during the 1989 FIFE soil properties investigation. In-situ measurements used the constant well head permeameter method at five sites, each representing a different soil series. Six measurements were taken at each of two depths per site, located near soil moisture release sampling points.

Use Cases

• Calibrating soil moisture release curves based on paired hydraulic conductivity and moisture release measurements.
• Modeling long-term water balance for a watershed using field-saturated hydraulic conductivity values.
• Comparing hydraulic properties across five different soil series from the same geographic experiment.
• Validating remote sensing or hydrological models with in-situ soil property data from a controlled field campaign.

Strengths

• Data collection followed a standardized method (constant well head permeameter) with six replicates per depth at each site.
• Measurements were spatially co-located (within 1 meter) with soil samples for moisture release, supporting paired analysis.
• Covers five distinct soil series, providing comparative data across soil types.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided on any platform.
• Conflicting last-update dates exist between sources (1989 vs. 2026), creating uncertainty about data currency.
• The dataset's scale is limited to five sites from a single field campaign in 1989.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

In-situ measurements using the constant well head permeameter method.

Time Range

1989

Freshness

2026-04-09 21:55:23.179901

Geography

FIFE (First ISLSCP Field Experiment) station sites.