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Site Description

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).