Meteorological data from the Taastrup Climate and Water Balance Station 2014-2019

The dataset contains meteorological data from the Taastrup Climate and Water Balance Station operated by the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences of Copenhagen University. The station is located at the experimental university farm, Højbakkegård, 20 km west of Copenhagen. Records of agriculture climate and water balance at the site were initiated in 1955. In 2013 – 2016 the station was renovated and equipped with updated sensor technology. The station is designed to provide data for the calculation of reference evapotranspiration according to the Penman equation, with air temperature, relative humidity wind speed and radiation sensors installed at the height of 2 m above a grass surface equipped with soil heat flux sensors installed 5 cm below the surface. Rain and snowfall are measured using weighing gauges installed at 1.5 m and 0 m height. The weighing gauge at 0 m is placed in line with the grass surface to eliminate wind-induced under catch effects. In periods with missing 0 m precipitation data or risk for snow drifts, site precipitation is determined as dynamical under catch adjusted 1.5 m precipitation data using 2 m air temperature and wind speed following (Allerup et al. 1997; Vejen et al. 2014).

The station has a size of 30 x 50 m covered with a dense short grass mixture. In the growing season, the grass is cut weekly to a height of 6 cm. Since 2016 a small area of 5 x 5 m below each of the net radiation and soil heat flux sensors are irrigated in dry periods. The site is surrounded by ordinary agricultural fields and with rows of 3-10 m tall trees bordering the experimental farm at a distance of about 300, 350, 300, and 150 m in the north, east, south and west directions, respectively.

Most sensors are duplicated and installed at two horizontal positions within the cite. The setup ensures a backup during maintenance periods and helps the detection of calibration drifts. The datasets cover the period 2014.01.01 to 2019.12.31 and are available in daily, hourly or 10 minutes time resolutions. If two valid measurements are present, each parameter is provided as the mean value of the two duplicated sensor measurements, while a single sensor value is provided in periods with one missing. In periods with missing valid sensor data, gaps have been filled with the corresponding grid values of Høje-Taastrup municipality from the national grid dataset (Scharling 1999). A reference metadata file supplements each data set, providing information of data units, sensor type, logging intervals and quality assurance procedure. A raw data file is provided of single sensor measurements presented as 10 minutes mean values.