On June 8, the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) released a strategy for the National Coordinated Soil Moisture Monitoring Network (NCSMMN)—a multi-institutional effort to plan for and support nationally-coordinated soil moisture monitoring, data assimilation, and product development.

Developed in part to fulfill the requirements of the NIDIS Reauthorization Act of 2018, the strategy is the result of a 2-year multi-agency effort that included broad community engagement.

Soil moisture is a critical land surface variable and soil moisture measurements are necessary for applications ranging from agricultural monitoring and weather prediction, to drought and flood forecasting. However, until now, there has been no coordinated national strategy for deploying and maintaining soil moisture networks, or for developing nationally-integrated soil moisture data products.

The newly-released strategy represents a significant milestone for the NCSMMN and creates a roadmap for a national network that provides coordinated, high-quality, nationwide soil moisture information for the public good.

The NCSMMN and the strategy help advance CPO's mission to improve scientific understanding, monitoring, and prediction of climate and its impacts to enable effective decisions.

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