Article
 

State of the Art in Large-Scale Soil Moisture Monitoring

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/f4752j53t

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • Soil moisture is an essential climate variable influencing land–atmosphere interactions, an essential hydrologic variable impacting rainfall–runoff processes, an essential ecological variable regulating net ecosystem exchange, and an essential agricultural variable constraining food security. Large-scale soil moisture monitoring has advanced in recent years, creating opportunities to transform scientific understanding of soil moisture and related processes. These advances are being driven by researchers from a broad range of disciplines, but this complicates collaboration and communication; and, for some applications, the science required to utilize large-scale soil moisture data is poorly developed. In this review, we describe the state of the art in large-scale soil moisture monitoring and identify some critical needs for research to optimize the use of increasingly available soil moisture data. We review representative examples of (i) emerging in situ and proximal sensing techniques, (ii) dedicated soil moisture remote sensing missions, (iii) soil moisture monitoring networks, and (iv) applications of large-scale soil moisture measurements. Significant near-term progress seems possible in the use of large-scale soil moisture data for drought monitoring. Assimilation of soil moisture data for meteorological or hydrologic forecasting also shows promise, but significant challenges related to spatial variability and model structures remain. Little progress has been made in the use of large-scale soil moisture observations within the context of ecological or agricultural modeling. Opportunities abound to advance the science and practice of large-scale soil moisture monitoring for the sake of improved Earth system monitoring, modeling, and forecasting.
Resource Type
DOI
Date Available
Date Issued
Citation
  • Ochsner, T. E., Cosh, M. H., Cuenca, R. H., Dorigo, W. A., Draper, C. S., Hagimoto, Y., ... & Zreda, M. (2013). State of the art in large-scale soil moisture monitoring. Soil Science Society of America Journal, 77(6), 1888-1919. doi:10.2136/sssaj2013.03.0093
Journal Title
Journal Volume
  • 77
Journal Issue/Number
  • 6
Rights Statement
Funding Statement (additional comments about funding)
  • The contribution of Tyson Ochsner has been funded by the Oklahoma Agricultural Experiment Station. The contribution of Wouter Dorigohas been funded through the SMOS Soil Moisture Network Study– Operational Phase (ESA ESTEC Contract no.4000102722/10). The contributions of Eric Small and Kristine Larson were funded by grants from NASA (NNX10AU84G) and NSF (AGS 0935725). The contribution of Marek Zreda has been funded through the COSMOS project by the U.S. National Science Foundation (Grant no. ATM-0838491). The contribution of Eni Njoku was funded through the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under contract with NASA.
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

Items