An in-situ daily dataset for benchmarking temporal variability of groundwater recharge

A newly developed benchmark dataset of groundwater recharge per unit specific yield (RpSy, n meters) at daily temporal resolution is presented. The data has been obtained through the application of the Water table Fluctuation (WTF) method at groundwater wells within the continental US. To ensure high-fidelity estimates, only wells that meet a set of stringent criteria have been considered. The RpSy dataset may serve as a benchmark for validating the temporal consistency of recharge products and daily simulation results from land surface and integrated hydrologic models.

The resulting product is a continuous daily RpSy (n meters) time series data for 485 groundwater wells. The data files are provided in the .csv format and consist of three columns for each observation well. The first column lists the local time, while the second and third columns provide the RpSy and RpSyu (considering a groundwater depth-dependent specific yield) time series in meters per day. Additionally, a file containing site information for all the selected wells is included. It contains four columns that detail the USGS ID of the groundwater well, its latitude (Lat), longitude (Long), and screen depth (depth, in meters). The data file can be accessed in most text editors and spreadsheets.