2025 National Soil Moisture Workshop
About the Workshop
Held June 3-5, 2025 at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado, the 16th annual National Soil Moisture Workshop explored the theme "Making Soil Moisture Science Actionable." The workshop was hosted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service and NOAA's National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado State University. Participants came from across the U.S., including Hawaii and Puerto Rico, and represented universities, soil moisture networks, federal and state agencies, and private industry.
Workshop presentations included targeted sensor applications for agriculture, improvements to modeled soil moisture, data assimilation or machine learning for improving forecasting models, developments in public-facing maps and tools, and relationships between soil moisture and resource management or hazard mitigation planning. View the workshop agenda.
Video recordings of the workshop presentations will be available on this page soon. 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."
This year, the workshop also included:
A pre-workshop meeting covering Operations and Maintenance Challenges for Soil Moisture Networks. This discussion-based session included identification of key components of successful network viability and identification of challenges to demonstrating network value and securing funding.
Two field trip options covering different aspects of operational applications of soil moisture information. One field trip up the Poudre Canyon included talks on national forest management from Arapaho Roosevelt National Forest , post-wildfire restoration from the Coalition for the Poudre River Watershed, and expansion of soil moisture data collection at RAWS stations from Colorado State University. The other trip provided a water management perspective from Northern Water at their Berthoud campus and from City of Fort Collins Water Utility at Horsetooth Reservoir.
2025 Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award Recipient: Dr. Todd Caldwell
At this event, the workshop organizing committee and the NCSMMN Coordinating Team awarded Dr. Todd Caldwell the 2025 Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award in recognition of his many contributions to the community. Dr. Caldwell has actively engaged with national coordinated soil moisture monitoring efforts since the network’s inception. He has been a consistent chair of soil moisture-focused sessions at numerous scientific meetings, often serving as the source of new initiatives and collaborations for soil moisture science.
Dr. Caldwell contributed significantly to the development of the NCSMMN Strategy and the Soil Moisture Data Quality Guidance document recently published by NCSMMN. He has also been recognized for his contributions to the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive Mission. He was one of the founding organizers of the National Soil Moisture website, and during his time at the U.S. Geological Survey, he helped pioneer dissemination and testing of new technologies such as cosmic ray neutron sensors.
Overall, Dr. Caldwell has been an outstanding member of the soil moisture community with a breadth and depth of knowledge which helps raise the visibility and profile of soil moisture science and positively impact society.
The Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award is presented annually at the National Soil Moisture Workshop to the 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 Agenda & Presentation Recordings
| Time (MT) | Topic | Speaker/Moderator |
|---|---|---|
8:30 a.m. | Welcome to Colorado State University and Fort Collins | Peter Goble – Colorado Climate Center, Colorado State University |
| 8:40 a.m. | Welcome, Applications of Soil Moisture Theme | Elise Osenga – CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder/NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System |
| 8:50 a.m. | National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN) Highlights and the Public Value of Soil Moisture Data | Mike Cosh – U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service |
| Session 1: Networks & Expanding Soil Moisture Observations | Moderator: Mike Cosh | ||
| 9:00 a.m. | 2025 Status of USFS Forest Soil Moisture Monitoring Network | Stephanie Connolly – U.S. Forest Service (USFS) |
| 9:15 a.m. | Introducing Louisiana Climate & Digital Agricultural Network: Scope, Design, and Development | Vinit Sehgal – Louisiana State University |
| 9:30 a.m. | Total Water Monitoring: The Upper Missouri River Basin Dataset as a Model | Nathan Edwards – South Dakota Mesonet, South Dakota State University |
| 9:45 a.m. | Cropland Observatory Nodes (CRONOS): Proximal, Integrated Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Monitoring Systems | Tyson Ochsner – Oklahoma State University |
| 10:00 a.m. | Break – Coffee & Discussion Time | |
| Session 2: Tools & Approaches for Sharing & Communicating Data | Moderator: Elise Osenga | ||
| 10:30 a.m. | Opportunities for Improving Site-Based Soil, Weather, and Hydrological Data Access from a Centralized Data Platform | Toby Meierbachtol & Ashish Raval – Synoptic |
| 10:45 a.m. | Building Scalable Tools for Interrogating Mesonet Datasets | Andres Patrignani – Kansas State University |
| 11:00 a.m. | Calibration of Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensors: Approach and Data from Colorado | Tim Green – U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service |
| 11:15 a.m. | Soil Moisture with Perspective: Leveraging Long-Term Observations for Monitoring and Communication | McKenzie Peters – North Carolina State Climate Office |
| 11:30 a.m. | An Assessment of Fractional Available Water as a Drought Monitoring Tool | Ronald Leeper – North Carolina State University |
| 11:45 a.m. | Discussion and Panel Q&A | Moderator: Elise Osenga |
| 11:55 a.m. | Soil Moisture Community Leadership Award Presentation | Mike Cosh – U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service |
| 12:00 p.m. | Networking | |
| Session 3: Understanding Crop–Soil Moisture Relationships | Moderator: Peter Goble | ||
| 1:00 p.m. | Challenging Water Scarcity with Sustainability: Increase Your Yield with EcoFriendly Polymer | Kenny Toyonaga – EF Polymer |
| 1:15 p.m. | Permanently Installing Capacitance Probes Under Row Crops Provides the Data We Need to Enable Truly Accurate AI Models | David Sloane – Irrigronomy |
| 1:30 p.m. | Developing Impacts-based Soil Moisture Thresholds for Agricultural Drought Assessment Using Corn and Soybean Yield in the Midwestern U.S. | Zhanassyl Teleubay – The Ohio State University |
| 1:45 p.m. | Discussion and Q&A | Moderator: Peter Goble |
| 2:00 p.m. | Short Break | |
| Session 4: Advancements in Modeled or Remote-Sensed Soil Moisture | Moderator: Mike Cosh | ||
| 2:15 p.m. | Estimation of Rootzone Soil Moisture by Combining Multiple Remote Sensing Products through Machine Learning | Jeff Niemann – Colorado State University |
| 2:30 p.m. | Enhancing Rootzone Soil Moisture Dynamics Estimation with a State-Based Model | Frank Anyoka Adekilae – Louisiana State University |
| 2:45 p.m. | Integrating Multimodal Remote Sensing and Machine Learning for Scalable, HighResolution Soil Moisture Estimation | James Zollweg – State University of New York, Brockport |
| 3:00 p.m. | NOAA Soil Moisture Products System | Jufu Yin – NOAA National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) STAR/University of Maryland |
| 3:15 p.m. | Discussion and Q& A; Closing Comments | Moderator: Mike Cosh |
| 3:30–5:00 p.m. | Poster Session, Snacks, and Networking | |
| Time (MT) | Topic | Speaker/Moderator |
|---|---|---|
| Session 5: Thinking Beyond Sensors | Moderator: Elise Osenga | ||
| 8:30 a.m. | Schedule for the Day & Other Reminders | Elise Osenga, Peter Goble, Mike Cosh |
| 8:45 a.m. | Keynote: Effective Water Resource Management – Including Soil Moisture on the Rosebud Indian Reservation: A WinWin for the Tribe, the State, and the Nation | Syed Huq – Water Resources, Rosebud Sioux Tribe (Sicangu Lakota Oyate) |
| 9:15 a.m. | Discussion and Q&A | Moderator: Elise Osenga |
| 9:30 a.m. | Quantifying the Effects of Cultural Burning on Soil Moisture and the Water Balance in Northern California | Michelle Stern – U.S. Geological Survey |
| 9:45 a.m. | CoCoRaHS and Visual Collection of Soil Moisture Information | Peter Goble - Colorado Climate Center, Colorado State University |
| 10:00 a.m. | Facilitated Panel Discussion: Thinking Beyond Sensors | Syed Huq, Michelle Stern, Peter Goble Moderator: Elise Osenga |
| 10:30 a.m. | Coffee Break | |
| Session 6: Soil Moisture Data for Decision-Making | Moderator: Mike Cosh | ||
| 11:00 a.m. | Rainfall and Soil Moisture Stations Network for Landslides Forecast Product in Puerto Rico | Pedro Matos Llavona – Puerto Rico Landslide Hazard Mitigation Office / University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez |
| 11:15 a.m. | NASA NLDAS-3: Next-Generation Land Data Assimilation System to Support North American Water-Informed Decisions | Jonathan Case – University of Alabama Huntsville |
| 11:30 a.m. | Working Irrigation Water Requirement Using Soil Moisture in Crops | Hemendra Kumar – University of Maryland |
| 11:45 a.m. | Producer Engagements to Promote the Adoption of Soil Moisture Sensors and Effective Data-Driven Decisions through an Irrigation Outreach Program | Abia Katimbo – University of Nebraska, Lincoln |
| 12:00 p.m. | Facilitated Panel Discussion – Barriers and Opportunities in Adoption of Information/Technologies | Pedro Matos Llavona, Jonathan Case, Hemendra Kumar, Abia Katimbo Moderator: Helen Silver – Ground Up Consulting, LLC/ IN-RICHES, Colorado State University |
| 12:30 p.m. | Group Picture | Mike Cosh |
| 12:45 p.m. | Lunch | |
| 1:15 p.m. | Working Lunch: Communicating Your Science | Eleanor Hasenbeck (CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder/NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System) |
| Session 7: Tracking Drought | Moderator: Elise Osenga | ||
| 1:45 p.m. | Keynote: Beyond the Surface: How Soil Moisture Monitoring Informs Water Supply Decisions Across the Basin | Rebecca Breismoore – Colorado River Water Conservation District |
| 2:15 p.m. | Discussion and Q&A | Moderator: Elise Osenga |
| 3:30 p.m. | Soil Moisture as a Key Variable in Impact Based Agricultural Drought Monitoring | Koushan Mohammadi – University of Connecticut |
| 3:45 p.m. | Soil Moisture Data Value Study Sensitivity Analysis in the Upper Missouri River Basin | Jackie Beck – The Ohio State University |
| 3:00 p.m. | Panel Discussion and Q&A | Moderator: Elise Osenga |
| 3:15 p.m. | Coffee Break | |
| 3:45 p.m. | Group Reflection: Gaps, Opportunities, and Next Steps Needed to Improve Applications of Soil Moisture Information | Elise Osenga, Mike Cosh, Peter Goble, Stephanie Connolly |
| 4:15 p.m. | Instructions for June 5 Field Trip | Stephanie Connolly – U.S. Forest Service |
| 4:20 p.m. | Closing remarks | Mike Cosh, Elise Osenga |
| Time (MT) | Topic |
|---|---|
| 8:00 a.m. | 8:00 a.m. Gather for Vans at Designated Location. Vans Will Load at 8:15 a.m. Promptly. |
| 8:30 a.m. | Vans Depart Promptly at 8:30 a.m. |
| 3:30 p.m. | Return to Campus/End of Day |
For more information, please contact Elise Osenga (elise.osenga@noaa.gov).
