Creation of a Data Quality Guidance Manual for Long-Term Monitoring Networks for Soil Moisture

Soil moisture is a key component of weather and climate monitoring for agricultural and hydrological applications. Many weather networks are currently providing soil moisture measurements but little guidance on siting, instrumentation, and quality control of the data has been available in the past. A new Soil Moisture Monitoring Data Quality Guidance Document was recently prepared by scientists at the University of Georgia based on a review of existing literature and extensive input from network operators and scientists, including Town Hall meetings at the 2023 Annual AMS and AGU Meetings. The document addresses two recommendations from the Strategy Document developed by the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network, a collaborative effort among federal agencies, soil moisture scientists, mesonet operators, and others led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). The document provides guidelines for standardizing soil moisture data collection by mesonets and other long-term monitoring networks. Specifically, it contains information about resources required to plan a network, selecting appropriate sites and soil moisture sensors, documentation of installation, calibration activities, and quality assurance and control of soil moisture data. The document also introduces a tiering system for categorizing the quality of soil moisture data. The tiers provide measurable aspirational goals for mesonet operators to evaluate, compare, and improve the quality of soil moisture data and facilitate transparency in data collection, sharing, and use by stakeholders. The document addresses the broad long-term monitoring community and stakeholders but is specifically designed for network operators who are either trying to install or upgrade to a high quality soil moisture network. The poster will provide information about how the document was compiled and will summarize key points of the manual.