AmeriFlux BASE data pipeline to support network growth and data sharing

Area of Science:

• Earth Science
• Ecosystem Science
• Atmospheric Science

Background:

• The AmeriFlux network collects crucial carbon, water, and energy flux data using eddy covariance techniques.
• Diverse ecosystems, instruments, and processing methods within AmeriFlux pose challenges for data standardization and sharing.
• A need exists for a unified data product to facilitate cross-site analysis and model validation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement a data-processing pipeline (BASE) to standardize AmeriFlux data.
• To ensure data quality, consistency, and accessibility for the research community.
• To create the largest long-term repository of standardized flux-meteorological data.

Main Methods:

• Development of the BASE data-processing pipeline by the AmeriFlux Management Project (AMP).
• Semi-automated workflow involving data upload, quality assurance/control (QA/QC), metadata ingestion, and data publication.
• Standardization of units and variable names for over 60 common flux-meteorological variables.

Main Results:

• The BASE pipeline effectively processes and standardizes data from a rapidly growing network.
• As of 2022, the BASE data product includes 3,130 site-years of data from 444 AmeriFlux sites.
• The repository offers standardized, quality-ensured flux-meteorological data, representing a global-scale resource.

Conclusions:

• The BASE pipeline successfully addresses data standardization and quality challenges in the AmeriFlux network.
• The standardized data product significantly enhances the capability for multisite comparisons, model evaluations, and data syntheses.
• This initiative provides a vital, accessible resource for advancing Earth system science research.