Brief description
This release consists of flux tower measurements of the exchange of energy and mass between the surface and the atmospheric boundary-layer using eddy covariance techniques. Data were processed using PyFluxPro as described by Isaac et al. (2017) for the quality control and post-processing steps. The final, gap-filled product containing Net Ecosystem Exchange (NEE) partitioned into Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) and Ecosystem Respiration (ER) has been produced using the ONEFlux software as described in Pastorello et al. (2020). This data set has been produced as part of the FLUXNET Shuttle project.
The Ti Tree East flux station is located on Pine Hill cattle station in the Northern Territory (GPS coordinates: -22.2870, 133.6400).
The site is a mosaic of the primary semi-arid biomes of central Australia: grassy mulga woodland and Corymbia/Triodia savanna.
The woodland is characterised by a mulga (Acacia aneura) canopy, which is 4.85 m tall on average.
Elevation of the site is 553 m above sea level, and the terrain is flat.
Mean annual precipitation at the nearby (30 km to the south) Bureau of Meteorology station is 305.9 mm but ranges between 100 mm in 2009 to 750 mm in 2010.
Predominant wind directions are from the southeast and east.
The soil is red sand overlying an 8 m deep water table.
Pine Hill Station is a functioning cattle station that has been in operation for longer than 50 years. However, the east side has not been stocked in over three years.
The instrument mast is 10 m tall. Fluxes of heat, water vapour and carbon are measured using the open-path eddy covariance technique at 9.81 m.
Supplementary measurements above the canopy include temperature and humidity (9.81 m), windspeed and wind direction (8.28 m), downwelling and upwelling shortwave and longwave radiation (9.9 m).
Precipitation is monitored in the savanna (2.5m). Supplementary measurements within and below the canopy include barometric pressure (2 m).
Belowground soil measurements are made beneath Triodia, mulga and grassy understorey and include ground heat flux (0.08 m), soil temperature (0.02 m – 0.06 m) and soil moisture (0 – 0.1 m, 0.1 – 0.3 m, 0.6 – 0.8 m and 1.0 – 1.2 m).
Lineage
Data collected using standard eddy covariance and meteorological instrumentation on a 10m tower at the Ti Tree East site. The data were quality controlled using the PyFluxPro software package, see Isaac et al. (2017), which is available at https://github.com/OzFlux/PyFluxPro. Gap filling and partitioning has been done using the ONEFlux software package, see Pastorello et al. 2020, which is available at https://github.com/fluxnet/ONEFlux.Data Creation
Data is measured using standard micro-meteorological instrumentation on a flux tower.
Data is recorded on a data logger and is collected by the site PI.
Data quality control including removal of data outside plausible ranges, removal of spikes, exclusion of particular date ranges and removal of data based on the dependence of one variable on another is done using PyFluxPro.
Filtering for low-ustar conditions, gap filling and partitioning of NEE into GPP and ER are done using ONEFlux.
Notes
CreditWe at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
The purpose of the Ti Tree East flux station is to:
- Measure the exchange of carbon dioxide, water vapour and energy between a semi-arid mulga (Acacia sp.) ecosystem and the atmosphere.
- Compare water use efficiency, GPP and ecosystem respiration between adjacent semi-arid ecosystems.
- Compare hydrological and ecophysiological responses to rainfall variability and heat stress between adjacent semi-arid ecosystems.
- Utilise the observations for parameterising and validating remote sensing data and land-surface models over semi-arid ecosystems.
Data Quality Assessment Scope
local :
dataset
The data have been quality controlled using the PyFluxPro software. Quality control checks applied to the data include:<ul style="list-style-type: disc;">
<li>range checks for plausible limits</li>
<li>spike detection and removal</li>
<li>dependency on other variables</li>
<li>manual rejection of date ranges</li></ul>
<br>
Specific checks applied to the sonic and IRGA data including rejection of points based on the sonic and IRGA diagnostic values and on either automatic gain control (AGC) or CO2 and H2O signal strength, depending upon the configuration of the IRGA.</br>
<br>If the data quality is poor, the meteorological data is filled from ERA5 reanalysis data and fluxes are filled using the Marginal Distribution Sampling method. Filled data can be identified by the Quality Controls flags in the dataset. </br>
<br>The ONEFlux software used to gap fill and partition this data set also applies a Median Absolute Deviation (MAD) filter to the carbon dioxide, latent heat and sensible heat before the gap filling step.</br>
Isaac P., Cleverly J., McHugh I., van Gorsel E., Ewenz C. and Beringer, J. (2017). Oz
doi :
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017
Data Quality Assessment Result
local :
Quality Result
No anomalous data detected after quality control.
Created: 2026-03-19
Issued: 2026-04-02
Modified: 2026-04-02
Data time period: 2012-07-01 to 2026-01-01
text: The Ti Tree East flux tower is located on Pine Hill cattle station near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
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Point-of-truth metadata URL
Isaac P., Cleverly J., McHugh I., van Gorsel E., Ewenz C. and Beringer, J. (2017). OzFlux data: network integration from collection to curation,
doi :
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-14-2903-2017
PyFluxPro
uri :
https://github.com/OzFlux/PyFluxPro
ONEFlux
uri :
https://github.com/fluxnet/ONEFlux
Pastorello, G., Trotta, C., Canfora, E. et al. The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data. Sci Data 7, 225 (2020).
- URI : geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/d1c93e41-a7ec-41af-a44b-4bc974a8483d
- global : d1c93e41-a7ec-41af-a44b-4bc974a8483d
