Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Developing a strategy for the national coordinated soil moisture monitoring network

June 8, 2021

Soil moisture is a critical land surface variable, affecting a wide variety of climatological, agricultural, and hydrological processes. Determining the current soil moisture status is possible via a variety of methods, including in situ monitoring, remote sensing, and numerical modeling. Although all of these approaches are rapidly evolving, there is no cohesive strategy or framework to integrate these diverse information sources to develop and disseminate coordinated national soil moisture products that will improve our ability to understand climate variability. The National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network initiative has developed a national strategy for network coordination with NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System. The strategy is currently in review within NOAA, and work is underway to implement the initial milestones of the strategy. This update reviews the goals and steps being taken to establish this national-scale coordination for soil moisture monitoring in the United States.

Publication Year 2021
Title Developing a strategy for the national coordinated soil moisture monitoring network
DOI 10.1002/vzj2.20139
Authors Micheal Cosh, Todd Caldwell, Bruce M. Baker, John D. Bolton, Nathan Edwards, Peter Goble, Heather Hofman, Tyson Ochsner, Steven Quiring, Charles W. Schalk, Marina Skumanich, Mark Svoboda, Molly Woloszyn
Publication Type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Series Title Vadose Zone Journal
Index ID 70221326
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse
USGS Organization Nevada Water Science Center