spatial_nsm: Spatial estimates of soil-climate properties using a modified Newhall simulation model

We developed a software framework to estimate high-resolution spatiotemporal soil moisture (monthly, annual, and seasonal) and temperature-moisture regimes. Our approach builds on the Newhall simulation model, allowing for the substitution of data and parameters, such as climate, snowmelt, soil properties, alternative potential evapotranspiration equations, and air-soil temperature offsets. The Newhall simulation model is an parsimonious accounting system of water movement in a vertical soil profile and characterizes the soil moisture and soil temperature conditions using monthly precipitation (total), monthly air temperature (mean), and available water capacity (AWC; characteristic of soil properties defining potential to retain water) as data inputs. We use open-source software (spatial_nsm) relying on Python that was translated from jNSM software (v. 1.6.1; U.S. Department of Agriculture)-a java implementation of the NSM relies on aspatial climate stations.