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2024 National Soil Moisture Workshop
The 2024 National Soil Moisture Workshop fcoused on highlighting new research across many disciplines that help advance progress towards realizing the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network’s (NCSMMN) vision. The 15th annual National Soil Moisture Workshop was held on July 15–18, 2024 at Utah State University in Logan, Utah and was co-hosted by Utah State University (USU) and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). The workshop has grown to include international researchers in soil moisture research and applications.
Video recordings are now available for the workshop presentations. Or, see below for a detailed agenda with links to individual presentations.
2024 Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award Recipient: Dr. Steven Quiring
During this event, the workshop organizing committee and the NCSMMN Coordinating Team awarded Dr. Steven Quiring the 2024 Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award in recognition of his persistent commitment to building the soil moisture community and to advancing soil moisture monitoring. He has been an integral part of the network since the start and has a research profile full of highly impactful research applying soil moisture information to urgent natural resource issues. Dr. Quiring is a climatologist in the Department of Geography at The Ohio State University. He was one of the founding organizers of the National Soil Moisture website and the annual National Soil Moisture Workshop, and he plays an instrumental role in the ongoing Upper Missouri River Basin Data Value Study. He has also served on the NCSMMN Coordinating Team for several years.
The Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award is presented annually at the National Soil Moisture Workshop to that individual, either research- or practitioner-oriented, who demonstrates an extraordinary commitment to building the soil moisture community of practice and delivering soil moisture–related products and services to support the public good.
Workshop Recap
The workshop also included two new features this year:
- Field trips to tour local sensor companies and engage in sensor and instrumentation workshops. Sensor companies toured were Campbell Scientific, Apogee Instruments, and Juniper Systems. Attendees got to learn about the tools used to develop soil moisture release curves, proper sensor installation, next-generation products, and much more. The tours were well attended, and participants reported that they found them very informative and were a highlight of the week.
- A field trip to the Cache National Forest to share in discussions of the unique challenges and opportunities with forest soil moisture monitoring. Attendees visited a SNOTEL station, assessed local soil profiles, and learned about local efforts to incorporate soil moisture data into best management practices. This included a highlight of the Three Creeks Grazing Project. The organizing committee will be preparing all resources developed for the trip to be made public.
The general sessions highlighted the multidisciplinary nature of soil moisture studies. These presentations helped identify new application-oriented research and research needs, explored increasing partnerships with the private sector, featured state mesonet build outs, and overall helped advance the vision of the NCSMMN. Video recordings of the workshop presentations are available below. Learn more about the national and regional research supported by the NCSMMN.
For a general overview of activities and priorities of the NCSMMN, see this article in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society: "Working Toward a National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network: Vision, Progress, and Future Directions."
Workshop Agenda & Presentation Recordings
Time (MT) | Topic | Location |
|---|---|---|
9:00 a.m. | Meter and Campbell Scientific Soil Moisture Demonstrations and Discussion | Campbell Scientific Inc. 815 West 1800 North Logan, Utah 84321 |
| 1:00 p.m. | Apogee Plant Tour and Sensor Discussion | Apogee Instruments Inc. 721 W 1800 North Logan, Utah 84321 |
| 2:15 p.m. | Campbell Scientific Facilities and Sensor Manufacturing Tour | Campbell Scientific Inc. 815 West 1800 North Logan, Utah 84321 |
| 3:30 p.m. | Juniper Systems Classroom and Outside “Hands-On” Geospatial Mapping Exercise | Juniper System, Inc. 1132 West 1700 North Logan, Utah 84321 |
| Time (MT) | Topic | Speaker/Moderator |
|---|---|---|
| 9:00 am | Welcome and National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN) Highlights | Jason Gerlich, CIRES/NOAA/NIDIS |
| 9:20 am | Tribal Keynote | Crystal Tulley Cordova, Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources |
| Session 1 | Moderator: Michael Cosh | ||
| 10:20 a.m. | The Value of Long-Term In Situ Soil Moisture Observations | Michael Palecki, NOAA/NCEI |
| 10:50 a.m. | Preferential Soil Hydrologic States in Terrestrial Water-Energy Coupling | Vinit Sehgal, Louisiana State University |
| 11:10 a.m. | Modeling Vadose Zone Soil Moisture at Large Scales | Morteza Sadeghi, California Department of Water Resources |
| Session 2 and Lunch Discussion | Moderator: Stephanie Connolly | ||
| 12:30 p.m. | The Role of Soil Moisture Observations in Water Supply Forecasting in the West | Peter Goble, Colorado State University Elise Osenga, Aspen Global Change Institute Paul Miller, Colorado Basin River Forecast Center |
| 1:00 p.m. | Updating the U.S. Forest Service Efforts to Establish a Forest Soil Moisture Monitoring Network | Stephanie Connolly, USDA Forest Service |
| 1:20 p.m. | Incorporating Soil Context into USCRN's Standardized Soil Moisture Observations | Ronald Leeper, NCEI/NCState
|
| 1:40 p.m. | Updates on the Upper Missouri River Basin Project | Nathan Edwards, South Dakota State Mesonet |
| 2:30 p.m. | The Oklahoma Hydronet: Developing a Statewide Integrated Hydrologic Monitoring System | Tyson Ochsner, Oklahoma State University |
| 4:00 p.m. | Poster Session | |
| Time (MT) | Topic | Speaker/Moderator |
|---|---|---|
| 9:45 a.m. | SNOTEL Site at Tony Grove Lake
| Justin DeRose, USU Quinney College of Natural Resources Stephanie Connolly, United States Forest Service Jordan Clayton, Utah Snow Survey |
| 11:20 a.m. | Beaver Mountain Ski Resort
| Justin DeRose, USU Quinney College of Natural Resources Janis Boettinger, USU Office of Global Engagement Scott Jones, USU College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences Kara Green, United States Forest Service |
| 12:25 a.m. | Bear Lake Overlook
| Justin DeRose, USU Quinney College of Natural Resources |
| 2:00 p.m. | Return to Campus / End of Day |
Workshop Organizing Committee
- John Bolten, NASA
- Todd Caldwell, USGS
- Stephanie Connolly, USFS, USDA
- Michael Cosh, USDA
- Trent Ford, University of Illinois
- Peter Goble, Colorado State University
- Scott Jones, Utah State University
- Steven Quiring, Ohio State University
- Marina Skumanich, NOAA/NIDIS
- Briana Wyatt, Texas A&M University
Thank you to all of the sponsors, the organizing committee, Utah State University and Dr. Scott Jones for hosting, the NCSMMN Coordinating Team, and many more. Your help was instrumental in making this event a success.
Associated Documents
For more information, please contact michael.cosh@usda.gov or soil.moisture@noaa.gov.
