Hydrometeorological observations at three boreal forest sites (aspen, jack pine, and black spruce) located in central Saskatchewan, Canada

Long-term observations are presented here from two coniferous (jack pine and black spruce) and one deciduous (aspen) forest sites located in central Saskatchewan, Canada. These sites were initiated through the Boreal Ecosystem and Atmosphere Study (BOREAS) program during 1994-96 (http://boreas.gsfc.nasa.gov/) and were later operated under the Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) program. All three sites were equipped with rich instrumentation that include walk-up scaffold towers fitted with sensors to measure air temperature, humidity and wind speed, above canopy shortwave and longwave radiation components, as well as fluxes of energy, carbon and water. Other onsite measurements included precipitation, snow depth, snow density, snow temperature, soil temperature and moisture profiles. These observations are useful for an improved understanding about the contrasts among sites. Moreover, the data is also very useful for modelling applications (calibration and validation). In addition to site observations, dynamically downscaled future meteorological observations by the Weather Research Forecast (WRF) model using Pseudo Global Warming (PGW) approach are included in the dataset. The WRF data was biased corrected by quantile-mapping method using the observed dataset. Thus, the data is ideal for testing, development, calibration, improvement, and validation of hydrological and/or land surface models as well as for projecting future changes in critical processes under changing climate.