Da Data Day (Day to day)

Today I decided not to go out in the field and instead work on data analysis. Even though I had found a toolbox that would calculate water budget, I had to find all the pertinent datasets and transform them into the correct form for the toolbox. Over the course of the day, I was able to acquire and prepare solar radiance, precipitation, DEM, and soils data. The remaining dataset is temperature, which has proven to be hard to find. After consulting with Dr. Wechsler, the plan is to find temperature data associated with the local NOAA weather stations, and use Theissen polygons to interpolate the temperature across the valley. One of the biggest issues that I have come to recognize about this project is the issue of temporal scale, and how this affects the accuracy and applicability of my water balance model. However, I am still glad to have the opportunity to do real field research in a place as spectacular as the Ka’a’awa valley, and am enjoying the learning experience.