PAR

High frequency measurements from lake-based "Blue Box" monitoring stations in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica (1994-2019, ongoing)

Abstract: 

As part of the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research program, continuous stage (lake level), ice surface ablation, surface PAR, and underwater PAR are collected at various lakes throughout the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica. This package contains data measured at 20 minute intervals for Lake Fryxell, Lake Hoare, East Lake Bonney, and West Lake Bonney in Taylor Valley as well as Lake Miers in Miers Valley. MCM sometimes refers to these measurements as "blue box" data because the instrumentation used to be housed in a blue box.

Dataset ID: 

3003

Associated Personnel: 

930
931
19
465
466
467
464

Short name: 

LIMNO_BLUE_BOX

Data sources: 

LIMNO_BLUE_BOX_FRYXELL
LIMNO_BLUE_BOX_HOARE
LIMNO_BLUE_BOX_ELBONNEY
LIMNO_BLUE_BOX_WLBONNEY
LIMNO_BLUE_BOX_MIERS

Methods: 

Details

The details of all Blue Box methods can be found in the "Blue Box Bible". There is information about sensors, manuals of such sensors, field equipment diagram Field Setup changes (hardware changed at each lake), Software changes, and notes. The specific programs used are included for each lake. Sensors are attached to CR10X data logger. Sampling interval of measurements is 60 seconds. Every 20 minutes program calculates average and record it in the storage module. Data were downloaded every year by beginning of the season (October-November) and by the end of the season (January-February) and cleaned from error data. Please see in the general comments section for the details on sensors and field setup. Programs can be found in technical documentation aka Blue Box Bible on this website

About the Log Files

Log files (changes made to the blue box dataset) and detailed diagrams of the blue box sensor, loggers and experiment deployment, plus sensor specifications and some operational parameters can be found here.

Notes on missing data
Missing data are mostly due to battery blackouts. Those points are represented as blanks in the database. if the blackout affects entire rows / dates, those may be missing.

Maintenance: 

Log files (changes made to the blue box dataset) and detailed diagrams of the blue box sensor, loggers and experiment deployment, plus sensor specifications and some operationational paramenters can be found in the Blue Box Bible.

in April 2016, after a revision of the Blue Box data, Peter Doran, John Priscu and Maciek Obryk concluded that West Lake Bonney Underwater PAR (Photosynthetic Active Radiation) data between 8-Jul-2008 and 12-Nov-2012 is questionable and likely inaccurate. Therefore, the UW_PAR data for West Lake Bonney and above date range has been replaced with blanks. Subsequent data derivatives and data snapshots have been updated accordingly

Data and metadata were moved into DEIMS on 2014. In 2016, data package was readied for LTER NIS. San Gil

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