Project Title:

Franklin, North Carolina Climate: Macon Middle School Location

Investigator(s):

Brian D. Kloeppel  E-Mail  | Tel. 828.524.2128 ext 127 | Biographical Sketch
Greg Zausen  E-Mail  |  Tel. 828.524.2128
Robert W. McCollum  E-Mail  | Tel. 828.524.2128 ext 102

University of Georgia  (Kloeppel)
USDA Forest Service  (McCollum)

Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory
3160 Coweeta Lab Road
Otto, North Carolina 28763 USA

02/2000 - Present

Type 1

National Science Foundation, DEB-9632854 (Text Version) and DEB-0218001 (Text Version) to Coweeta LTER.

The climate station at the Macon Middle School near Franklin, NC was established in February 2000. The objectives were to: 1) locate a fully equipped climate station outside of the Coweeta Basin, but within Macon County, North Carolina, 2) provide students and teachers at the school with a unique teaching tool, and 3) provide the public with an online archive of weather data. The station contains sensors for measuring air temperature, air humidity, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed, wind direction, vapor pressure, and barometric pressure. The station is powered by a solar panel with an option to utilize AC power.


Resources for students about terms used in this study:
Air temperature patterns - Source: University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point
Air humidity - Source: Georgia State University
Precipitation - Source: University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
Solar radiation - Source: PhysicalGeography.net
Wind speed/direction - Source: PhysicalGeography.net
Vapor pressure - Source: Georgia State University
Barometric (Air) pressure - Source: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
North Carolina Climate - Source: State Climate Office of North Carolina

Additional Macon Middle School Projects
There is one public school system in Macon County, North Carolina, where the Coweeta Hydrologic Lab is located. From the Macon Middle School, 15–18 sixth grade students from the science classes participate each year in the Coweeta program. The students come to eight Saturday sessions during the school year, approximately one per month. Each Saturday meeting lasts for about 4 hours, giving the students and researchers time to do a scientific project together. Locally, the middle school program has reached seven teachers and approximately 125 students.

Macon Middle School
1345 Wells Grove Road
Franklin, North Carolina 28734
828.524.3766

See Locations, Download GPS below.

The Campbell 10X datalogger powers and controls all sensors below. Measurements are made on all sensors every 60 seconds and are averaged every 60 minutes. The exception to this is precipitation which is measured and recorded only when it occurs. Precipitation is measured in 5 minute time periods when it occurs to estimate precipitation and it also is summarized hourly and daily. The system contains the following data logger components and sensors. Datalogger: Campbell 10X; power supply: CH12R power supply; precipitation: TE525WS tipping bucket (Texas Electronics); data storage: SM192storage module; air temperature: CS500 sensor; air relative humidity: CS500; solar radiation: Li200X pyranometer (Li-Cor); barometric pressure: C3105 pressure sensor; wind speed: 034A anemometer; wind direction: 034A anemometer.

The station is downloaded approximately every two months. Data are compared with output from Coweeta stations and from company specifications on sensor output. Data determined to be unreliable are deleted and replaced with a missing value “.” symbol before online data archiving.

Measurements are made on all sensors every 60 seconds and are averaged every 60 minutes. The exception to this is precipitation which is measured and recorded only when it occurs. Data are summarized and presented for each hour, day, and/or month. A description of the arrays (rows) of data is presented below.

Hourly Data Arrays
Array ID - array number (always 111)
Year - year (e.g. 2000)
Julian - Julian day (e.g. 297)
Time - eastern standard time (e.g. 2200)
Battery - battery voltage minimum;  volts
Rain - total hourly rainfall; millimeters (mm)
Air Temp - average air temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Rel Hum - average air relative humidity; percent (%)
VP - average vapor pressure; kiloPascals (kPa)
VPD - average vapor pressure deficit; kiloPascals (kPa)
Sol Rad - average solar radiation rate; micromoles per square meter - second (umol m-2 s-1)
Bar Pres - average barometric pressure; millibars (mBar)
Wind Sp - average wind speed; meters per second (m s-1)
Wind Dir - average wind direction; degrees
Wind Dir - wind direction standard deviation (e.g. 103)

Daily Data Arrays
 Array ID - array number (always 222)
Year - year (e.g. 2000)
Julian - Julian day (e.g. 297)
Time - eastern standard time (always 2400 for end of day)
Rain - total daily rainfall; millimeters (mm)
Air Temp Min - minimum air temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Air Temp Max - maximum air temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Rel Hum Min - minimum air relative humidity; percent (%)
Rel Hum Max - maximum air relative humidity; percent (%)
VP Min - minimum vapor pressure; kiloPascals (kPa)
VP Max - maximum vapor pressure; kiloPascals (kPa)
VPD Min - minimum vapor pressure deficit; kiloPascals (kPa)
VPD Max - maximum vapor pressure deficit; kiloPascals (kPa)
Tot Sol Rad - total daily solar radiation flux; megajoules per square meter (MJ m-2)
Bar Pres Min - minimum barometric pressure; millibars (mBar)
Bar Pres Max - maximum barometric pressure; millibars (mBar)

Monthly Data Array
Array - array number (always 31)
Year - year (e.g. 2000)
Month - month (e.g. March)
Precipitation - monthly precipitation; millimeters (mm)
Mean Temperature - mean temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Mean Maximum - mean maximum temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Mean Minimum - mean minimum temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Absolute Maximum - absolute maximum temperature; degrees Celsius (C)
Absolute Minimum - absolute minimum temperature; degrees Celsius (C)

Missing Data Codes: . (Period)

Note: This is an ongoing collection of climate data in support of core Coweeta LTER research. No publications are directly related to this study.  Other climate resources available at Coweeta LTER may be found in the following areas:

USGS Hydrologic Data in Near-Real-Time
(Coweeta LTER and Georgia Coastal Ecosystems LTER Collaboration)
USGS hydrologic data is harvested from five stream locations located in proximity to the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in western North Carolina.  Parameters retrieved include daily maximum discharge, daily minimum discharge, daily mean discharge, daily maximum gage height, daily minimum gauge height and daily mean gage height.

Climate (CLIMDB) & Hydrology (HYDRODB)
Centralized servers provide open access to long-term meteorological and stream flow records from a collection of research sites.  Coweeta LTER, along with thirty-eight other LTER, USGS, and USDA Forest Service sites, contributes climate and hydrological data.

Monthly Climate Data Across the Southern Appalachians (NOAA/NCDC)
This data set is collected from the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC).  The National Climactic Data Center is managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The collected data represents monthly readings from weather stations throughout the Coweeta LTER southern Appalachian study region.  Over 120 stations throughout Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia contribute decades of weather data, currently spanning the years 1931-2004.