FIFE Soil Water Properties: Porosity and Conductivity

Soil moisture release parameters and hydraulic conductivity were measured at five sites during the 1989 FIFE field campaign. The data were used to model porosity, saturated water potential, and the b-factor following the Clapp and Hormberger (1978) method. These characteristics describe plant-available water and water movement through soils.

Use Cases

• Modeling plant-available water based on soil moisture release parameters.
• Simulating water movement through soils using derived hydraulic conductivity.
• Calibrating land-surface models with field-measured porosity and saturated water potential.
• Characterizing major soil types in a grassland study area via bulk density and moisture release data.

Strengths

• Data originates from a well-documented NASA field campaign (FIFE).
• Parameters are modeled using a established scientific method (Clapp and Hormberger, 1978).
• Represents major soil types across the FIFE study area.

Limitations

• Column names and exact row counts are not provided in any source.
• Conflicting last-updated dates exist between platforms (1989 vs. 2026), suggesting metadata inconsistency.
• The license is ambiguously listed as 'other-license-specified' without further detail.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Field measurements collected during the 1989 FIFE campaign.

Time Range

1989

Freshness

2026-04-09 22:01:07.926968 (from datagov, though this may be a metadata refresh)

Geography

Five sites within the FIFE study area, representing its major soil types.