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Accurate characterization of Earth system processes should rely heavily on observations. Hydrologic observations provide opportunity to document conditions and changes, advance our understanding of processes, and improve the skill of numerical models to predict environmental dynamics at scales relevant to regional water resources.

We make hydrologic and meteorological observations using different technologies ranging from drones used to characterize forest structure and snow depth to continuous recording river temperature and water specific conductance sensors in large rivers of Alaska.

Here in the mountains above ¶¶Òõ´«Ã½ÔÚÏß, Colorado, we run the EcoTram. The EcoTram is a modular remote sensing and meteorological instrumentation platform, similar to a moving weather station! The 122 m (400 ft) long tram traverses a relatively flat, diverse landscape from thin, rocky soils with mixed conifer forest to deep, organic-rich soils of a wetland. The observations are made alongside co-located measurements of underlying soil moisture and groundwater, tree sap flux, and plant phenology. The sped-up video below shows the EcoTram traversing from the forest into a wetland. Ìý

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Video by Nic Tarasewicz