HR: 1330h
AN: H22D-0966    [PDF]
TI: The GLOBE Soil Moisture Campaign's Light Bulb Oven
AU: * Whitaker, M P
EM: mplw@hwr.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona Dept. of Hydrology \& Water Resources, P.O. Box 210011 J.W. Harshbarger Building (Bldng. \#11), Tucson, AZ 85721-0011 United States
AU: Tietema, D
EM: dtietema@email.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona Dept. of Hydrology \& Water Resources, P.O. Box 210011 J.W. Harshbarger Building (Bldng. \#11), Tucson, AZ 85721-0011 United States
AU: Ferre, T P
EM: ty@hwr.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona Dept. of Hydrology \& Water Resources, P.O. Box 210011 J.W. Harshbarger Building (Bldng. \#11), Tucson, AZ 85721-0011 United States
AU: Nijssen, B
EM: nijssen@email.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona Dept. of Hydrology \& Water Resources, P.O. Box 210011 J.W. Harshbarger Building (Bldng. \#11), Tucson, AZ 85721-0011 United States
AU: Nijssen, B
EM: nijssen@email.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona, Dept. of Civil Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, Tucson, AZ 85721 United States
AU: Washburne, J
EM: jwash@hwr.arizona.edu
AF: University of Arizona Dept. of Hydrology \& Water Resources, P.O. Box 210011 J.W. Harshbarger Building (Bldng. \#11), Tucson, AZ 85721-0011 United States
AB: The GLOBE Soil Moisture Campaign (SMC) (www.hwr.arizona.edu/globe/sci/SM/SMC) has developed a light bulb oven to provide a low budget, low-technology method for drying soil samples. Three different soils were used to compare the ability of the light bulb oven to dry soils against a standard laboratory convection oven. The soils were: 1) a very fine sandy loam (the "Gila" soil); 2) a silty clay (the "Pima" soil); and 3) a sandy soil (the "Sonoran" soil). A large batch of each soil was wetted uniformly in the laboratory. Twelve samples of each soil were placed in the light bulb oven and twelve samples were placed in the standard oven. The average gravimetric soil moisture of the Gila soil was 0.214 g/cm3 for both ovens; the average Pima soil moisture was 0.332 g/cm3 and 0.331 g/cm3 for the traditional and light bulb ovens, respectively; and the Sonoran soil moisture was 0.077 g/cm3 for both ovens. These results demonstrate that the low technology light-bulb oven was able to dry the soil samples as well as a standard laboratory oven, offering the ability to make gravimetric water content measurements when a relatively expensive drying oven is not available.
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6605 Education
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting