Fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) data collected in the Little Wind River, Riverton, WY, USA

Natural heat is used as a tracer for a variety of physical hydrogeological process, including zones of preferential exchange between groundwater and surface water. Several types of instruments are used to measure the temperature of surface water and saturated sediments. This data release presents the results of fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing (FO-DTS) using temperature sensitive armored cables deployed along the riverbed interface. Data were collected over time (08/06/2015 to 09/24/2015) at 1.01 m spatial resolution along a reach of the Little Wind River, WY, USA. This study reach included an upstream shallow side channel where the cable was exposed to air over several short segments, and a downstream deeper section where the cable was generally installed within 5 m of the bank. The FO-DTS system was setup to collect a temperature measurement along this cable every 40 min; however, solar power to the control unit failed intermittently during the deployment period, especially later in the record, so the data are of inconsistent timestep. The processed data included in this release have been clipped to a cable length and time period of specific interest, as described in the local readme files.