CUAHSI Hydrologic Measurement Facility's Multiscale Evapotranspiration Node for the Hydrologic Sciences Community

The Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Sciences Inc. (CUAHSI) established the Hydrologic Measurement Facility (HMF) to transform watershed-scale hydrologic research by facilitating access to advanced instrumentation and expertise that would not otherwise be available to individual investigators. Through community input, a robust and flexible framework was established to identify, obtain, provide and disseminate the first suite of instrumentation that intends to form the basis of a new measurement facility for hydrologic research. CUAHSI HMF proposed to acquire, for community use, a suite of evapotranspiration (ET) and vadose zone instruments that includes new and emerging technology applicable for a range of scales and science questions: 2 Eddy Covariance System, an Integrated Cavity Output Spectroscopy system (for 18O in air and water), a Large Aperture Scintillometer, and a wireless soil water sensor network. In addition to instrumentation or "beam time", expert technical assistance in deployment and operation of the instrumentation, and data reduction, quality control, and post-processing support will be fully supported by a team of scientists and technicians. Upon a successful review, the ET suite will be rapidly available to support individual PIs to pursue their specific science questions through a competitive process. Additional opportunities for graduate student and undergraduate research and inquiry-based education as well as K-12 education are a cornerstone of this project.