Met Office Cardington: 5 min averages of surface to 50 m meteorology, radiation and subsoil measurements, 2004-2024

This repository provides a continuous hydrometeorological record of the Met Office Observation-based research Boundary Layer Facility at the semi-rural field site (18 Ha) of Cardington (52° 06′ N, 00° 25′ W, 29 m ± 1 m amsl) in central-southern England between 2004 and 2024. The dataset contains recorded surface meteorology, radiation and subsoil from sensor measurements at 5 minute averaging period and measured by instruments mounted on 2 m, 10 m, 25 m and 50 m masts.

Instruments mounted on 2 m, 10 m, 25 m and 50 m masts include:

• Vector Instruments T302 PRT temperature sensors were located at all heights.

• Screened and aspirated HMP155s were located at all heights.

• Gill HS50 3-D horizontally symmetric ultrasonic anemometers were located at all heights.

• Licor Li-7500 open-path hygrometer was located at 10m.

• Setra Model 270 transducer measured barometric pressure at 1.5 m.

• Michell chilled mirror hygrometer measured dew and frost point temperature at 1.2 m

Surface instrumentation includes:

• Rainfall is measured with a Met Office Mk5 tipping-bucket gauge with a 0.2 mm accuracy.

• Screened and aspirated Rotronics Hydroclip2 measured grass canopy air temperature and RH located at 0.4 m, 0.15 m and 0.08 m.

Radiation instrumentation includes:

• Clear-domed Kipp and Zonen CM21 pyranometers located at 2 m measured global downwelling, diffuse downwelling, and upwelling components (of wavelength between 0.3-3 μm).

• Kipp and Zonen CG4 pyrgeometers located at 2 m measured the downwelling and upwelling longwave radiation (4.5–40 μm).

• Grass canopy, or skin temperature was measured radiometrically with the Heitronics KT15 pyrometer.

Aerosol and visibility instrumentation includes:

• A Belfort 6230A instrument located at 2 m measured visual range through air (visibility) (2004-April 2011).

• A Biral HSS VPF-730 instrument located at 2 m measured visual range through air (visibility), and for the determination of present weather (April 2011-2024).

• Visible total scattering coefficients were measured with MRI integrating nephelometer (2004-2011) and Optec integrating nephelometer (2011-2024) located at 3 m.

Subsoil instrumentation includes:

• Delta-T ML2/ML3 theta probes measured volumetric soil moisture at depths of 10, 22, 57 and 160 cm.

• Delta-T PRT measured soil temperature at 1, 4, 7, 10, 17, 35, 65 and 100 cm (2004-March 2012).

• Delta-T ST2-396 thermistor probes measured soil temperature at 1, 4, 7, 10, 17, 35, 65 and 100 cm (March 2012-2024).

• Hukseflux HFP01SC flux plate measured ground heat flux.

• Druck 1830 pressure transducer measured water table depth.

A full list of NetCDF variables can be found in "Continuous meteorological surface and soil records (2004-2024) at the Met Office surface site of Cardington, UK." Osborne et al. ESSD (2025). This paper should be referenced in any research/publications pertaining to this dataset.

To ensure optimal traceability and transparency of data, comprehensive metadata is included.

Date (Publication): 2025-08-19T14:25:17

Date (Creation): 2025-08-19T14:25:17

Citation identifier: https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/e75de035395f48dbbb43f1a190406632

Citation identifier: NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis / e75de035395f48dbbb43f1a190406632

Citation identifier: doi / 10.5285/e75de035395f48dbbb43f1a190406632

Point of contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
Met Office		enquiries@metoffice.gov.uk	Author
Unavailable	Kerr-Munslow, Amanda	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	McGregor, James	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Price, Jeremy	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Osborne, Simon	Unavailable	Author
Unavailable	Brooke, Jennifer	Unavailable	Author
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Custodian
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor
Unavailable	Brooke, Jennifer	Unavailable	Principal investigator
Unavailable	Price, Jeremy	Unavailable	Principal investigator
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	pointofContact
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Publisher

Maintenance and update frequency: Not planned

Update scope: Dataset

Keywords

Cardington
Met Office
observation
turbulence
wind speed
wind direction
boundary layer
temperature
relative humidity
upwelling
shortwave
longwave
radiative flux
radiation
surface
precipitation
rainfall
amount
visibility
soil
moisture
flux tower
surface
subsurface
measurement

GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0

atmospheric conditions

Access constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Public data: access to these data is available to both registered and non-registered users.

Use constraints: Other restrictions

Other constraints: Under the following licence http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/, appropriate use of these data may fall under any use. This message is intended as guidance, always read the full licence. When using these data you must cite them correctly using the citation given on the CEDA Data Catalogue record.

Spatial representation type: Grid

Language: English

Topic category

Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere

Begin date: 2004-06-01T00:00:00

End date: 2024-12-31T23:59:59

Unique resource identifier: WGS 84

Distribution format

Name	Version
Data are NetCDF formatted

Distributor contact

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Distributor

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/e75de035395f48dbbb43f1a190406632	CEDA Data Catalogue Page

OnLine resource

Protocol	Linkage	Name
	http://data.ceda.ac.uk/badc/ukmo-cardington/data/complete-collection/surface-met/05min-averages	DOWNLOAD

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Conformance result

Title: Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services

Date (Publication): 2010-12-08

Statement: Data were collected by the Met Office Meteorological Research Unit, Cardington, during its operational period. These data have been standardised for the production of this dataset, following similar file metadata conventions for all associated datasets within the continuous hydro-meteorological record (2004-2024) at the Met Office surface site of Cardington, UK Dataset Collection, as described more fully within Osborne et al., (2025). This standardisation approach addressed, where possible, any known data and metadata issues. Data were then deposited at the Centre for Environmental Data Analysis (CEDA) for long-term archival.

Metadata

File identifier: e75de035395f48dbbb43f1a190406632 XML

Metadata language: English

Character set: UTF8

Parent identifier: 5487380511084413a502c4b229273bc6
5487380511084413a502c4b229273bc6

Hierarchy level: Dataset

Date stamp: 2026-01-12T03:26:33

Metadata standard name: UK GEMINI

Metadata standard version: 2.3

Metadata author

Organisation name	Individual name	Electronic mail address	Role
NERC EDS Centre for Environmental Data Analysis		support@ceda.ac.uk	Point of contact

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