FIFE Project/Campaign Document

Summary:

A follow-up experiment (called "FIFE Follow-On") took place at the same location from 1989 to 1993. The FIFE experiments are at the center of NASA's plan to develop a physically based approach for the use of satellite remote-sensing systems. More information is available on-line at http://daac.ornl.gov/FIFE/FIFE_About.html.

Table of Contents:

• 1 Project/Campaign Overview
• 2 Data Availability
• 3 Data Access
• 4 Principal Investigator Information
• 5 Submitting Investigator Information
• 6 References
• 7 Glossary of Terms
• 8 List of Acronyms
• 9 Document Information

1. Project/Campaign Overview:

Name of Project/Campaign:

The First ISLSCP (International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) Field Experiment (FIFE)

Project/Campaign Introduction:

FIFE was conducted on the Konza Prairie of central Kansas from 1987 through 1989 to improve understanding of carbon and water cycles and to develop and analyze remote-sensing methodologies for observing these processes.

Project/Campaign Mission Objectives:

The general objectives of FIFE were to understand the biophysical processes controlling the fluxes of exchanges of radiation, moisture, and carbon dioxide between the land surface and the atmosphere; to develop and test remote-sensing methodologies for observing these processes at a pixel level; and to understand how to scale the pixel-level information to regional scales commensurate with modeling of global processes.

Discipline(s):

Earth Science

Geographic Region(s):

Konza Prairie, located in the central plains region of the United States of America

Detailed Project/Campaign Description:

FIFE investigators collected data from 1987 through 1989 at the Konza Prairie Natural Research Area, a prairie grassland that measures 15 km by 15 km and is located south of the Tuttle Reservoir and Kansas River about 10 km from Manhattan, Kansas, U.S.A. The center of the FIFE site is close to 39.05° N, 96.53° W.

Data were collected through monitoring and through intensive field campaigns (IFCs). Monitoring which was performed nearly continuously through 1987, 1988, and 1989, consisted of the acquisition of AVHRR, Landsat, SPOT, and GOES satellite data; continuous acquisition of relevant meteorological data from 16 automated meteorological stations within the site; collection of gravimetric soil moisture surveys, streamflow data, and biometric measurements; and observation of relevant atmospheric optical properties to study the effects of atmospheric conditions on satellite remote-sensing images.

The IFCs had the specific objective of acquiring surface and airborne data in conjunction with the satellite overpasses to study the biophysical and energetic processes over spatial scales from millimeters to kilometers and temporal scales from seconds to an entire season. The IFCs required a large commitment of manpower and resources; thus, their combined duration during 1987 was only 57 days. Each of the IFC periods targeted a critical phase of vegetative development (IFC-1 "greenup," IFC-2 "peak greenness," IFC-3 "dry-down," and IFC-4 "senescence"). Ground measurements were acquired at 32 sites within the Konza Prairie and were complemented by measurements from a number of other sites (e.g., a dense network of 42 rain gauges in a watershed). Sample sites were placed within strata representing the major spatial variation in soil depth, seasonally integrated incident solar radiation, and management practice (e.g., grazing and burning).

More information is available on-line at http://daac.ornl.gov/FIFE/FIFE_About.html.

2. Data Availability:

Data Type(s):

Imagery and tabular data.

Input/Output Media:

Selected data and imagery files are available from the ORNL DAAC Web site (http://daac.ornl.gov). Data can be downloaded through FTP, and they are available on CD-ROM and on diskettes formatted for UNIX, PCs, and Macs.

Proprietary Status:

The data are free for public use.

3. Data Access:

Data Center Location:

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) is housed within the Environmental Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, U.S.A.

Contact Information:

ORNL DAAC User Services Office
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Telephone: +1 (865) 241-3952
Fax: +1 (865) 574-4665
E-mail: ornldaac@ornl.gov

Associated Costs:

The data are are available free of charge.

4. Principal Investigator Information:

Varies.

5. Submitting Investigator Information:

Varies.

6. References:

On-line information is available from the following World Wide Web site:

The FIFE Experiment Overview
(http://daac.ornl.gov/FIFE/FIFE_About.html)

7. Glossary of Terms:

A glossary is available at http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/cdiac/glossary.html. For additional terms, see the EOSDIS glossary at http://harp.gsfc.nasa.gov/v0ims/glossary.of.terms.html.

8. List of Acronyms:

FIFE

The First ISLSCP (International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project) Field Experiment

IFC

intensive field campaign

ISLSCP

International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project

URL

Uniform Resource Locator

A more complete list of acronyms is available at http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/cdiac/pns/acronyms.html. For additional terms, see the EOSDIS list of acronyms at http://harp.gsfc.nasa.gov/v0ims/acronyms.html.

9. Document Information:

Document Revision Date:

March 19, 1999

Document Review Date:

March 19, 1999

Document ID:

ORNL-campaign1116

Document Curator:

webmaster@daac.ornl.gov

Document

http://daac.ornl.gov /FIFE/fife_campaign.html