Meteorological and Soil Moisture Measurements in Mount Kenya Region at Various Scales

The optimal solution for solving many uncertainties associated with weather and climate data is accurate field measurement. This enhances various climate services that can be offered to different sectoral case studies and solve societal weather-related challenges by ensuring the obstacles are overcome amicably, for instance, climate adaptation barriers in the face of climate variability. The main goal of our study was to make long-term meteorological measurements in Mount Kenya region rainforest biome at an elevation of 1998 m above sea level (Karatina University weather station) and 3055 m above sea level (Mount Kenya field station) used at various scales from 2022. We are using Temperature-Moisture-Sensor (TMS) burial (1 m) and TMS Long (45 cm) soil sensors as well as temperature/relative humidity data loggers. These devices provide us with crucial data and reshape field measurement campaigns in data-scarce regions of Kenya. The soil moisture sensors also measure soil temperature, surface, and air temperature. The soil moisture data and temperature at various scales is acquired at an interval of 10 minutes while the data logger records data at an interval of 30 minutes. Another key goal was to acquire soil moisture data at tropical rainforest biome which is scarce as well as relative humidity and temperature. The objectives of the study are to analyze reference evapotranspiration and estimation of real evapotranspiration in humid Mount Kenya climatic region, Nyeri County; compare climate parameters in two different elevations; to understand microclimatic changes associated with varying elevations and ensure data quality control in analysis by checking uncertainties and sensitivities associated with ERA5 reanalysis, synoptic (GFS/ECMWF) and station datasets. Therefore, to narrow the gap between missing data, uncertainties, and quality control of data, meteorological field measurements cannot be misconstrued. Keywords: data loggers, field measurement, soil moisture, quality control, Kenya,