Update: The CREW - CLPX Minimet Network, Fraser, CO, website has been set up for near real-time dataset viewing for the coming Water Year 2010 (WY2010). Many features are planned to be added including photos and site information for all CLPX Minimet stations and providing quality-controlled archived datasets. Please check back again soon.

The CLPX Minimet Network of Fraser Experimental Forest, Colorado, has been further developed and maintained by Dr. Paul Houser of CREW and GMU (his webpage). The main goal of the CLPX Minimet ("CLPXmm") Network is to study spatial variability of snow depth and related meteorological variables (e.g., wind speed, air temperature, net radiation, etc.) in a high mountain catchment.

The original Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) campaign began in 2002 and was sponsored by different government agencies, including NASA and US Forestry Service. The original CLPX campaign duration spanned 2002-2003 (WY2003) and involved "minimet" or smaller, standardized meteorological tower sites at a variety of sites and conditions through parts of Colorado, including North Park, Fraser Experimental Forest (FEF), and Buffalo Pass. These original sites were known as "Corner Met" sites and were located at the corners of 1 km^2 boxed area with a larger and more instrumented tower at the center of the square.

All map processing is done using the Grid Analysis and Display System (GrADS). If there is a problem with any of the data sets or an error on the website, please contact the webmaster.

Recent Work: August 2009

The week of August 9-15, 2009 CREW staff members joined with Dr. Houser and team to perform maintenance and debugging on weather stations located in Fraser Experimental Forest (FEF). One CREW team member provided real-time support from CREW in Maryland.

The teams divided into groups of twos or threes and visited all thirty-five stations in the project. At each station data was downloaded onto a netbook via a USB connection. Maintenance such as replacement of site antenna, or battery or even up-righting the entire station following collapse from a fallen tree was done as needed. Enhancements were made to some stations that included adding a directional antenna for better automatic communication with the base computer system located in the FEF ranger station and the re-positioning (occasionally in a nearby tree) of the solar panels to allow maximum power available to a site. At select locations trees were cut down if such appeared to be an immenient threat to the site. A site, called a repeater site, which does not collect data but relays data from sites farther away to those closer to the ranger station was moved so that some stations which had been unable to send data to the collection computer are able to do so now.

Wet soil samples were collected from each of 35 stations for soil moisture and texture analyses purposes. At each station, four gravimetric soil samples from the top 5 cm of the surface were collected using scoops and spatulas. Collected soils were stored in cans for their weight and texture analysis. After collecting the samples, wet weight measurements were taken upon returning the ranger station. Except the gravimetric samples, soil moisture was also measured using theta probes at four locations at each station. For further calibration, soil temperature measurements were also taken at 1, 5, and 10cm depths from surface.

At CREW itself, the quality-corrected data was used to display near-real-time plots (http://crew.iges.org/clpxmm). Daily quality-controlled reports of site data provided information which was used as feedback for the site workers to refine instrument calibration and solar panel and antenna placement.

A photo gallery of the August 2009 trip has been posted.