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2021 National Soil Moisture Workshop
Event Date
August 18, 2021 - August 19, 2021
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
EDT
Location
Virtual

The virtual 2021 National Soil Moisture Workshop provides a unique opportunity for leaders in soil moisture research and development to come together in an interactive workshop format to exchange ideas and develop collaborations. This will be the tenth consecutive year for the workshop, which is an initiative of the community of researchers that developed the Marena, Oklahoma, In Situ Sensor Testbed (MOISST).

Crop Condition and Soil Moisture Analytics Tool (Crop-CASMA)

Crop-CASMA  is a web-based geospatial application that provides access to high-resolution data from NASA SMAP and MODIS missions to map soil moisture and crop vegetation conditions across the United States. 

Data Coverage
Contiguous U.S.
Period of Record
2015 - present (soil moisture); 2000 - present (vegetation)
File Format
images
pdf
csv
json
shapefile
other
Data Type
Satellite
Using Soil Moisture Information to Better Understand and Predict Wildfire Danger: A Symposium for Researchers and Fire Managers
Event Date
May 6, 2021
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
CDT
Location
Virtual

This online symposium highlighted the latest advances in using soil moisture information to better understand and predict wildfire danger. This event provided a forum to build connections between researchers and managers, to share relevant research in this area, and to identify ways to move forward with new research and end uses.

Pacific Northwest DEWS Drought & Climate Outlook: February 22, 2021
Autumn foliage in Mt. Rainier National Park
Event Date
February 22, 2021

The Pacific Northwest Drought Early Warning System (PNW DEWS) Drought & Climate Outlook Webinar is part of a series of regular drought and climate outlook webinars designed to provide stakeholders and other interested parties in the region with timely information on current drought status and impacts, as well as a preview of current and developing climatic events (i.e., El Niño and La Niña).

Damaged corn crops due to drought
What Is Flash Drought? What Can We Do About It?
Published on

Flash drought has serious real-world implications. The 2017 Northern Plains flash drought resulted in fires that burned 4.8 million acres and U.S. agricultural losses in excess of $2.6 billion dollars. Neither the drought’s swift onset nor its severity were forecasted. Episodes like this have sparked intense interest in flash drought in both the research community and the end user/applications community. Clear conceptualization of flash drought is important to both communities as there are differing understandings and confusion on what flash drought is and how it differs from other droughts. To address this need, NIDIS held a virtual workshop in December 2020 that convened researchers and end users to begin developing a shared understanding/definition of flash drought, and to identify research and tools needed to improve flash drought early warning.
 

Landscape Evaporative Response Index (LERI)

The Landscape Evaporative Response Index (LERI) is an experimental drought monitoring and early warning guidance tool that measures the anomaly in the actual evapotranspiration (ETa) from the land surface. This web page provides LERI plots based on accumulated 8-day, monthly, seasonal, growing season, and annual ETa for the contiguous United States and northern Mexico at a 1-km spatial resolution. 

Data Coverage
Contiguous U.S.
Period of Record
2000 - present
File Format
images
netcdf-4
Data Type
Satellite

Decision Tools for the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN)

This site provides decision tools and resources using data from weather stations in the SCAN and Tribal SCAN networks. The Soil Climate Analysis Network, also known as SCAN, supports natural resource assessments and conservation activities through its network of automated climate monitoring and data collection sites.

Data Coverage
United States

NASA SPoRT-LIS Soil Moisture Products

NASA’s Short-term Prediction and Transition Center – Land Information System (SPoRT-LIS) provides high-resolution (about 3-km) gridded soil moisture products in real-time to support regional and local modeling and improve situational awareness.

Data Coverage
Puerto Rico
United States
Period of Record
Current Conditions
File Format
images
geotiff
other
Data Type
Model
Radar
Satellite
New Soil Moisture Research Results
Published on

Soil moisture is a critical variable and influences the climate system through modification of energy and moisture fluxes of the boundary layer. This in turn affects temperature, humidity, and precipitation. In addition, soil moisture is used as an indicator for agricultural drought, and recent studies have determined soil moisture as a key indicator of, and possible early warning for, flash drought in the United States.

Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP)

The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission is an orbiting observatory that measures the amount of water in the top 5 cm of soil everywhere on the Earth’s surface every 3 days.

Data Coverage
Global
Period of Record
2015 - present
File Format
other
Data Type
Satellite
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