Spectral Analysis of Soil Moisture Time Series From The NOAA-CREST Observation Site in Millbrook, NY

Soil moisture is the water content located within the soil. It affects our weather and climate, agriculture, and irrigation. The study of soil moisture enables the study of runoff potential and flood control, soil erosion and slope failure, reservoir management, and water quality. The ultimate goal of this project is to examine the relationship of soil moisture to temperature and precipitation, as well as to statistically analyze the collected data. These measurements are provided by L-band (1.4 GHZ) microwave readings and soil moisture and temperature sensors (Stevens Digital Hydra Probe II) mounted at two locations (A and B) and depths of 2.5, 5, and 10 cm; here, we focus on the data provided by the sensors. These measurements include hourly data from the time of deployment of the soil moisture probes in November 2010. The probes are located close to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) US Climate Reference Network (USCRN) Millbrook station, which measures soil moisture at depths down to 1 m as well as surface temperature and precipitation. To achieve this goal we analyze in situ observations from Millbrook, NY. We analyzed the relationship between precipitation and temperature as well as that of the soil moisture and diurnal temperature range. We then analyzed the correlation, lagged auto and cross correlation, and coherence of the different measurement time series. The soil moisture shows a great variation over time. We see a strong correlation coefficient between the different soil moisture data collected at the Millbrook site, and a weak correlation coefficient at the hourly scale of the precipitation data with the soil moisture data from Millbrook.