Validating USCRN Soil Observations with a Dense Temporary Soil Monitoring Network

U.S. Climate Reference Network (USCRN) provides a national scale soil observational information system that supplies a critical scientific data record. The primary applications of these soil observations are for monitoring and assessing drought and assisting in validation of satellite measurements and land-surface model output. Any information collected from sparse data networks, like USCRN, are limited to individual point measurements and are not necessarily represent the larger area. Hence, studies that evaluate temporal and spatial representativeness around stations from a sparse data network are important for identifying the footprint of variability for comparisons with remotely sensed and modeled soil moisture. To better address the issue of spatial representativeness of soil observations, we installed a series of temporary soil observation networks around two USCRN stations in Tennessee and New York. The two temporary networks were installed in the beginning of the growing season of 2013 and remained in the ground for one drying and wetting cycle. At the end of the growing season, the soil temperature and moisture observations were collected from the temporary network to identify spatial and temporal variability as compared to the USCRN station. These preliminary results will assist in better understanding sparse data networks and build the foundation for future studies soil moisture spatial representativeness.