Specifications
12
TEAM Climate Monitoring Protocol 3.1
Table 2 summarizes the basic principles for locating several sensors under the guidelines described
above (it includes additional sensors not required in the TEAM Climate Protocol). The following
sections describe in more detail the process of siting the climate station based on the availability of
clearings that fulfill the requirements for different sensors. See Figure 2 on the following page for a
workflow summarizing this process. There is also a video called “Finding a good place for the climate
station (siting)” in the Climate Protocol section of the TEAM portal
(http://www.teamnetwork.org/en/protocols/climate) that provides more information about the siting
process
SSeennssoorr
HHeeiigghhtt aabboovvee tthhee
g
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r
r
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d
d
MMiinniimmuumm ddiissttaannccee ffrroomm
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SSoouurrccee
Temperature 2.0 m 4 times the height of obstacle
At least 30 m away from road
WMO 2008,
EPA 1995
Relative Humidity 2.0 m 4 times the height of obstacle WMO 2008,
EPA 1995
Precipitation 0.3 m 2 times the height of obstacle WMO 2008,
Wind 10 m
(more reliable in a
canopy tower)
10 times the height of obstacle WMO 2008,
EPA 1995
Solar Radiation 3 m but not critical (as
high as possible)
Unobstructed view of the sky;
obstructions should be at an
angle < 5 degrees above the
horizontal plane
WMO 2008
T
T
a
a
b
b
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2
2
.
.
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.
.
4.2
Level 1 Siting
Ideally, and to fulfill the requirements of the global solar radiation sensor, the climate station should be
located in a clearing that is large enough to allow for a nearly complete view of the sky dome with no
obstacles above 5 degrees from the horizon obstructing the view, since incident and diffuse radiation
above 5 degrees are not negligible. To fulfill this requirement, the distance to an obstacle of height
H
should be
H
/
tan(5*2 / 360)
. For example, if the climate station is in a clearing and the forest at the
edge of the clearing is 25 m high, then the station should be at least 285 m away from the forest edge
which would require a clearing at least of 570 m in diameter (assuming the forest around it is more or
less uniform in height and there is no local topography).
We fully recognize that this requirement is unattainable in most tropical forest areas, not only because
clearings of this size are not often available, but also because of topographic features. Local
mountains and hills will usually preclude the view of the sky no matter how big the size of the clearing.
Unless the site is located in a flat area and a large clearing is available, the climate station should be
sited using the process described in Level 2 Siting (see next Section).
I
I
M
M
P
P
O
O
R
R
T
T
A
A
N
N
T
T
: Appropriate siting of the climate station needs to happen BEFORE the
climate equipment is ordered. The final site characteristics may dictate the specifications of
some of the sensors.