In-the-field infrastructure upgrades will improve NEON water elevation data products at many aquatic sites.
To date, all NEON groundwater and surface water elevation data has had high uncertainty due to unstable survey reference points and delays in reporting field-based sensor position adjustments. Permanent benchmarks are in the process of being installed at all NEON aquatic sites to serve as controlled location reference points. Site resurveys in relation to these benchmarks will impact the published water elevations derived from pressure transducers.
Elevations will be updated and reported to a much greater certainty. This will require republishing groundwater and surface water elevation data products. In addition to these updates, past field-reported sensor position adjustments will be included in the data republication.
Sites that have or will be improved with permanent benchmarks include: POSE, LEWI, SUGG, BARC, CRAM, KING, MCDI, MAYF, PRPO, PRLA, BLDE, WLOU, FLNT, LIRO, BLUE, GUIL, ARIK, CUPE, PRIN, MART, BIGC, REDB, HOPB, COMO, SYCA, WALK, TOMB, BLWA, MCRA.
This issue affects the following data products:
Updates to the groundwater and surface water elevation data products will be republished in batches as post-benchmark installation surveys are processed and integrated with raw pressure transducer data.
Additionally, an error for all 30-minute averaged groundwater elevation data beginning on Jan 1, 2018 accidentally includes anomalous data points in the averages. We recommend using the 5-minute groundwater elevation data product until we announce this fix.