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I. List of types of data gathered at the
weather station (30 minute averages are reported):
·
Air temperature (in degrees Celsius)
·
Evapotranspiration (This is a measure of the evaporation from the
soil and transpiration from plants. It is calculated from a
complicated formula that includes wind speed, relative humidity,
temperature, solar radiation, precipitation and latitude.)
·
Fuel Moisture (a measure of how dry conditions are, which may aid
in fire prediction; “fuel” refers to combustible materials such as
leaf litter)
·
Fuel Temperature (a measurement of the temperature of combustible
materials that may aid in fire prediction)
·
Precipitation
·
Relative Humidity
·
Soil Moisture (measured at a depth of 20 cm below
the ground)
·
Soil Temperature (measured at a depth of 5 cm and 20 cm below the
ground, in degrees Celsius)
·
Solar radiation (Total for the 24 hour day. This number also
includes reflected sunlight shining off of the moon; this can be
seen in the Microsoft Excel data as very low solar radiation
values that occur around a full moon.)
·
Vegetation (leaf) temperature (in degrees Celsius)
·
Wind speed and direction
***Reminder:
Your students will need direct experience actually measuring
weather parameters before they will be able to really understand
and think about the field station weather data.
Back to Lesson
Plan
Using Biological Field Station
Weather Data for
Teaching about Data Analysis and Interpretation
Developed by Dr. Gigi
Saunders, Biology Department, Missouri State University
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Bull
Shoals Field Station
