The development of an operational quality assurance system for OASIS Super Site data at the Oklahoma Mesonet

The Oklahoma Mesonet is an automated network of 116 remote, hydrometeorological stations across Oklahoma. Each station measures core variables which include: air temperature and relative humidity at 1.5 m, wind speed and direction at 10 m, barometric pressure, rainfall, incoming solar radiation, bare and vegetated soil temperatures at 5, 10, and 30 cm below ground level, and soil moisture at 5, 25, 60, and 75 cm.

In 1999, the Oklahoma Atmospheric Surface-layer Instrumentation System (OASIS) Project upgraded 89 sites with a suite of instruments capable of estimating the surface energy balance. In addition, a subset of 10 OASIS sites, designated OASIS Super Sites, were instrumented to measure the components of the surface energy balance with enhanced accuracy.

While select short-term case studies have utilized OASIS Super Site data, long-term real-time quality assurance (QA) methods have never been implemented into the collection of OASIS observations. This study details ongoing efforts to update the operational QA database of the Oklahoma Mesonet while highlighting specific QA methodologies for OASIS Super Site data. These methodologies focus on measurements of the surface energy and radiation budgets.