Soil Moisture Webinar Series — Practical Applications of Soil Moisture Information
The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and the National Weather Service (NWS) hosted two webinars on soil moisture data and applications. These webinars are intended to help NWS operational forecasters and other weather & climate service providers better understand soil moisture monitoring and its practical applications.
The first webinar, held on February 22, provided an overview of soil moisture monitoring and interpretation, including a review of the three main techniques for estimating soil moisture conditions: in situ ground-based systems, satellite measurements, and land surface model outputs. The second webinar, held on March 29, featured presentations from climate service professionals on how soil moisture informs their decision making.
This second webinar, "Practical Applications of Soil Moisture Information," included presentations on the use of soil moisture to inform drought monitoring and forecast products, and an example of how it’s applied by state climatologists:
- “Using Soil Moisture to Develop the U.S. Drought Monitor Map” – Richard Heim, NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
- “How Soil Moisture Informs the U.S. Drought Outlooks” – Brad Pugh, NOAA Climate Prediction Center
- “Using Soil Moisture for State-Level Drought Monitoring” – Laura Edwards, South Dakota State Climatologist
This webinar series is sponsored in part by the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network. For more information, please email Marina Skumanich (marina.skumanich@noaa.gov).
