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Developing Blended National Soil Moisture Products to Improve Drought Monitoring, Phase 2

NIDIS Supported Research
NIDIS-Supported Research
Main Summary

The goal of this collaborative project is to continue the development of national-scale in situ soil moisture products for multiple, diverse applications across the contiguous U.S. This project builds on the success of NationalSoilMoisture.com, a NIDIS-funded first-generational, near-real time, gridded soil moisture product blending in situ, remote-sensing, and modeled data.

This second phase of the research effort is focused on four tasks: 

  1. Sustain and enhance NationalSoilMoisture.com 
  2. Validate and improve the accuracy of soil moisture products in forests and rangelands 
  3. Develop improved products for uncertainty propagation 
  4. Develop a soil moisture-based flash drought early warning product.

For more information, please contact Elise Osenga (elise.osenga@noaa.gov).

Research Snapshot

Research Timeline
August 2020 - September 2021
Principal Investigator(s)
Trent Ford, University of Illinois; Steven Quiring, Ohio State University
Project Funding
NIDIS/UCAR Climate Adaptation and Mitigation Program
Related Topics

What to expect from this research

  • Enhanced national soil moisture map/information product (currently residing at NationalSoilMoisture.com), including improved accuracy for forests and rangelands
  • Uncertainty layer addition to the soil moisture map/information product
  • Flash drought early warning product using soil moisture

Related Data & Maps

The research-based website NationalSoilMoisture.com provides high-resolution gridded soil moisture products derived from in situ soil moisture measurements, Natural Resources Conserva