FIFE Soil Survey Reference with Physical and Chemical Properties

1987-1989 data from the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) area in Kansas, USA. The dataset provides detailed soil profile descriptions and laboratory analyses for five key soil types (Clime, Benfield, Dwight, Florence, Tully). It was created by NASA and the U.S. Soil Conservation Service to characterize soil physical and chemical properties for land surface studies.

Use Cases

• Analyzing soil moisture retention characteristics at 1/3 and 15 bar suctions for hydrological modeling.
• Characterizing soil profiles by horizon for bulk density and particle size distribution data.
• Comparing cation exchange capacity and other chemical properties across five distinct soil series.
• Validating remote sensing data or model outputs with ground-truthed soil property information from the FIFE study sites.

Strengths

• Data collection follows standard procedures (Soil Survey Staff 1984) for laboratory analysis.
• Provides detailed, horizon-specific soil profiles from surface to bedrock at five representative stations.
• Dataset is associated with the well-documented FIFE project, a major land-atmosphere interaction study.

Limitations

• Exact row count, column names, and dataset size are not specified on any platform.
• Conflicting last updated dates: Data.gov lists 2026-03-12, while NASA Earthdata lists 1989-10 31, suggesting a metadata conflict.
• Spatial coverage is limited to five specific stations within the FIFE study area.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. Soil Conservation Service.

Collection Method

Soil samples collected from horizons at five stations and analyzed in a laboratory using standard procedures.

Time Range

1987-1989

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:38:13.988612

Geography

FIFE study area, Kansas, USA.