|
Contact Information |
|
|---|---|
| Site Contacts | Address |
| Principal Investigator: Roger C Bales Email: rbales@ucmerced.edu Phone: (209) 724-4348 |
University of California - Merced 5200 North Lake Road Merced, CA. 95343 |
Site History |
|
| This project focuses on establishing a “virtual” hydrologic observatory, and provide direction for building new infrastructure in an actual observatory. The information basis for the virtual observatory will be i) extensive spatial data developed by the USFS and NPS, ii) operational data from federal, state and local agencies, iii) satellite remote sensing data, and iv) research data from various investigators. Much of the Merced and Tuolumne headwater area lies inside Yosemite National Park. The observatory design concept involves establishing intensive measurements at ground-based instrument clusters, integrated with broad coverage offered by satellite remote sensing, plus operational networks. | |
Research Topics |
|
| This project will formulate basin-scale measurement and modeling strategies to meet priority research issues, through analysis of existing operational and research data, and assess different instrument cluster designs to provide the ground-based measurements needed for hydrologic process research. Scaling between the instrument clusters is a major challenge. Basing an observatory design on instrument clusters at representative points across the landscape recognizes that it is logistically infeasible to measure everything, everywhere, all the time. Instrument clusters co-locate key measurements, in order to illuminate linkages among processes within each cluster's relatively small footprint. Motivating science questions center on how hydrologic systems respond to multiple perturbations, i.e. how do pulses and changes propagate through the hydrologic system. The aim is to develop new process understanding and thus improve predictive ability for hydrologic responses. | |
| Institutional Affiliations | Research Web pages |
|
|