Comparison of Soil Moisture Predictions with In-Situ Measurements

Soil moisture measurements are an integral part of classifying the severity of drought. Soil moisture drives many surface-atmosphere interactions, which influence the balance of energy on earth. These interactions also have an impact on weather and climate patterns, like drought. Soil moisture is vital to crop health and development, tree mortality, and ecological diversity. Droughts have many negative economic and environmental impacts. The United States Drought Monitor (USDM) use other large-scale datasets to classify drought conditions on a weekly basis. This study implements daily measurements in different environments over a two-week period in Columbus, Ohio. Measurements are collected using gravimetric soil moisture, a CS616 soil moisture probe, and a Hydrosense II. These measurements will provide an accurate idea of what conditions are like on and within the surface. The measurements will then be compared to datasets such as the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), and Regression Kriging (RK). It is necessary that these approximations are precise and comparable to the daily measurements to guarantee that the public is receiving the most accurate description of drought conditions.