Network news

We're excited to announce that CW3E implemented three new stations and shared their data with us. The stations CPR and KNT, located in Colorado, and IGM located in California, measure soil moisture since September 2024, and are now included in our daily updates.

Thanks to the CW3E network team for providing us with the data and all relevant information for the implementation.

We are excited to announce the addition of the WATERLINE network to the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN)! This network, based in Greece, consists of three monitoring stations that measure soil moisture at a depth of 5 cm. In addition to soil moisture, the stations also provide in situ data on air temperature and precipitation.

Data for these stations are currently available from October 2021 through September 2024, with regular updates planned to ensure ongoing data availability.

We extend our sincere thanks to Stavros Stathopoulos, Prof. Alexandra Gemitzi, and the entire WATERLINE team for their valuable contributions and support of the ISMN.

The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released its 2023 State of Global Water Resources report on October 7, 2024, highlighting a decline in global soil moisture. The International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) contributed in-situ data analysis, while global hydrological models also provided insights.

ISMN analyzed data from 160 stations with over 15 years of records, assessing moisture levels at two depths: near-surface (up to 10 cm) and deeper (up to 0.5 m). In Europe, nearly half of the near-surface stations showed below-normal levels, while 81% of U.S. stations reported normal or above-normal conditions. Significant regional variations were noted, particularly in July across the U.S.

Global Hydrological Models indicated predominantly below-normal soil moisture worldwide in 2023. North America, South America, North Africa, and the Middle East experienced the most significant declines, especially from June to August, while Alaska, northeastern Canada, India, and northeastern Russia showed above-normal levels. However, limited in-situ data made it challenging to validate these findings.

ISMN, involved with the WMO report since 2021, continues to enhance data collection efforts and plans to expand analysis to more regions in future reports.

Click here for the full report.

We are very happy to announce that we have integrated the new network BFG_Nw into the ISMN. The network is located in Germany, Koblenz and consists of one station measuring soil moisture in 25, 50, 85 and 105 cm depth. Data is available from June 1996 until September 2024. Additionally soil temperature, precipitation, surface temperature and air temperature data is measured. We would kindly thank Jens Wilhelmi for providing us with the data and we appreciate all the help during the implementation process.

We are very happy to announce the integration of a new network in Germany. The RU-ADDFerti network consists of 30 stations in irrigated fields with measuements from June to September 2023. Soil moisture and soil temperature is mainly measured in 25 cm depth, but for some stations the sensors are installed at 50 cm deoth.

We would like to thank Alexander Steiger for providing us with the data and all relevant information!

We are happy to announce that the recently integrated network CW3E in USA is now updated on a daily basis.

We are happy to announce that the new network CW3E is now available within the ISMN! The network consists of 21 stations located at various locations in Colorado and California measuring soil moisture and soil temperature in 5, 10, 15, 20, 50 and 100 cm depth. Data availability varies by station, with the earliest data starting from 2017. All stations have data up to the present.

We would kindly thank Anna Wilson, Brian Kawzenuk, Jeri Wilcox, Patrick Mulrooney, Douglas Alden and Ava Cooper for providing us with the data. We appreciate all the help during the implementation process!

The data update for LABFLUX network located in the north of Italy is now available until March 2024.

Data can now be downloaded here.

Many thanks to Davide Gisolo, Canone Davide, Ferrari Stefano, Alessio Gentile and Previati Maurizio for providing us with the data update and other relevant information!

The French network "SMOSMANIA" has been updated for the year of 2023. Data can now be downloaded in our data portal.
We would like to kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing us with the data and information!

We're excited to announce that a new station (Ararimu_2605) for the network SOILSCAPE located in New Zealand has been added to the ISMN! The station has been providing soil moisture and soil temperature measurements at various depths since August 2022 to the present day and is now being updated on a daily basis. Additionally, the station offers on-site measurements of precipitation and air temperature.

We would like to thank the SoilSCAPE network team for providing us with the data!

We are happy to announce that the new stations for the network SOILSCAPE in USA and New Zealand which have been included in the ISMN since March 2024 are now updated on a daily basis.

We're excited to announce a new addition to the "NVE" network located in Norway! Saerheim station has been providing soil moisture and soil temperature measurements at various depths since 2006 to the present day. Additionally, the station offers on-site measurements of precipitation and air temperature.

Visit https://ismn.earth/en/dataviewer/ to access data from NVE and other networks.

We would like to thank Fred Wenger for providing us with the data and for his help during the implementation process!

Are you attending EGU 24? We are excited to announce that ISMN will be actively participating in the EGU General Assembly in Vienna from April 15^th to 19^th, 2024. Explore our agenda at the conference to delve into our latest research advancements and ongoing initiatives within the ISMN:

Poster presentation (On-Site)

“Potential of Deep Learning based quality control methods for soil moisture time series in an operational data service”

Presented by: Wolfgang Korres, Tunde Olarinoye, Fay Boehmer, Kasjen Kramer, Stephan Dietrich, Marcel Reinhardt, and Matthias Zink

Monday, April 15^th, 2024, 10:45-12:30 (CEST), Hall A | Poster no. A.57

Oral presentation (On-Site)

“The International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN): providing a permanent service for earth system sciences”

Presented by: Matthias Zink, Fay Boehmer, Wolfgang Korres, Kasjen Kramer, Stephan Dietrich, and Tunde Olarinoye

Monday, April 15^th, 2024, 14:40-14:50 (CEST), Room 0.49/50

Splinter meeting (On-Site)

“In situ soil moisture: What are the errors sources, and how can we derive a traceable uncertainty budget?”

Convened by: Irene Himmelbauer, Francois Gibon, Raffaele Crapolicchio, Miroslav Zboril, and Matthias Zink

Thursday, April 18^th, 2024, 14:00-15:45 (CEST), Room 2.83

We look forward to seeing you in Vienna!

The Russian network "Ru_CFR" has been updated for the year of 2023. Unfortunately, there is no data for air temperature sensor at 1 m Height  at the Ru-Fyo station because the sensor is broken.

Many thanks to Andrej Varlagin for providing us with data and information.

We are very delighted to announce that we updated SoilSCAPE within the ISMN.

In the past, soil moisture data from several SoilSCAPE sites have already been available through the ISMN.

In the last few years, the SoilSCAPE team have installed eight new sites, two are located in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, USA, three are located at Jornada Experimental Range in New Mexico, USA and finally, three are located in the north island of New Zealand.
Additionally, the sites Kendall and Lucky Hills in Walnut Gulch, Arizona, which are already part of ISMN have been revived.

For most of the sites soil moisture and soil temperature is measured in 5, 10, 20 and 30 cm depths. Additionally, air temperature and precipitation is provided.
For the new installed sites the data availability ranges from Dezember 2021 until end of February 2024. The network will be set up for our daily data updates soon.

We would kindly thank Erik Hodges, Mahta Moghaddam, Amer Melebari, Michael Wheater and the SoilSCAPE network team for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation!  

The French network "FR_Aqui" has been updated for the year of 2023. Unfortunately there is no data for the two stations GrandCal and Fraye as they burned down in 2022. Good news is that the two stations are now being reinstalled and we can expect data updates for the the year 2024.
For the parcMeteo station, almost 6 months of data are missing (from January to June), unfortunately there have been instrument issues, but this is now fixed.

We also have had to correct the measuring depths for the parcMeteo station. Before soil moisture and temperature have been measured in 1, 3, 10 and 50 cm. But this changed in the beginning of 2013. Since then the sensors are installed in 5, 10, 25 and 50 cm. Please note that therefore the whole timespan of the parcMeteo station has been reprocessed.

Many thanks to Sylvia Dayau, Jean-Pierre Wigneron and Christelle Aluome for providing us with data and information.

We are pleased to inform you about the inclusion of the LABFLUX network in ISMN. This network consists of four stations measuring soil moisture (also including soil temperature, air temperature and precipitation) at depth between 10 and 40 cm at various sites in the north of Italy.

We appreciate Davide Gisolo, Canone Davide, Ferrari Stefano, Alessio Gentile and Previati Maurizio as well as the entire LABFLUX team for providing the data to ISMN!

The spanish network REMEDHUS has been upddated for the year 2023.

Data can now be downloaded here.

We would like to kindly thank Ángel González Zamora and Jóse Martínez Fernández for providing us with the data and information!

We are happy to announce that we integrated the WIT-Network into ISMN. The network consists of 13 stations measuring soil moisture in 10 cm depth at two different locations in Pakistan.

We would kindly thank Dr. Abubakr Muhammad and Rida Zainab for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation!

The catalan network XMS-CAT provided us with two new stations (Garriguella and Bolvir), that we have successfully integrated in the ISMN.
We further updated all stations until December 2023.
Many thanks to Lola Boquera and Agnès Lladós for providing us with the data and all necessary information!

On December 12th 2022, the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN), a global data service for in situ soil moisture, successfully transferred all operations to its new hosts in Koblenz, Germany. The International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC) and the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) have jointly provided a stable operational base and a permanent home for ISMN throughout the last year. Reflecting on this period, the ISMN takes pride in consistently delivering reliable ser-vice to both its data providers and users as well as in working on several new devel-opments.

Soil moisture is an essential variable for assessing food security, agricultural drought, climate impacts and water resources management. Hence, sharing data globally is of utmost interest for a variety of stakeholders including scientists, water and disaster managers as well as policymakers. The International Soil Moisture Network unites institutional and research data and disseminates them free of charge to anyone interested. These data are not only available for the past but 30% of the database has data in near-real-time being delivered to the users.

Historical development and transfer to Koblenz

The ISMN has been developed at the Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation at the Technical University (TU) Wien starting in 2009. Over the years, it evolved into a primary reference for satellite soil moisture, garnering a diverse user base. Despite its big success story, the ISMN faced operational challenges with short-term contracts and funding issued by the European Space Agency (ESA). Hence, the TU Wien looked for a new host that could overcome these challenges.
Finally, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport agreed to fund this important environmental information infrastructure, including 5 scientific and operational staff members. The International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC) and the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG) were jointly assigned as the new host. The planning of the transfer took place throughout the years 2021 and 2022. In December 2022 both teams, at TU Wien and ICWRGC/BfG could celebrate the successful launch of operations at the new hosting facility while enjoying a slice of cake as captured in the photo. The transfer as well as the first year of operations went smoothly without any major interruptions for the users of the service.

ISMN now and in future

Nowadays, the ISMN hosts about 3000 monitoring stations across 58 countries (as shown next to the map). These data are voluntary contributions from 77 observational networks around the world that appreciate ISMN’s service towards them and its users. The new ISMN team in Koblenz is actively addressing technical challenges to enhance the service's robustness and reliability. Simultaneously, they have successfully incorporated new data from the USA, Netherlands, Spain, China and the UK in the last one year.
For the future, ISMN will intensify its data acquisition efforts, especially in the global south and Asia, to expand its global data coverage. For supporting this aim, ISMN is seeking active collaboration with international organisations like the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

We are happy to announce that we integrated the COSMOS-UK network into ISMN. It is established and operated by the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH) and the first network to systematically measure soil moisture throughout the UK. The network consists of ~50 sites, each recording a number of hydrometeorological and soil variables since 2013. Each site additionally hosts a cosmic-ray neutron sensor (CRNS) to derive Volumetric Water Content over a field scale (~0.1 km2) at daily resolution.

We would kindly thank Jonathon Evans, Matt Fry, Richard Smith and the COSMOS-UK network team for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation!

Data from the STEMS_CNR (STEMS) network in Italy has been updated until August 2023.

Users can now download data for free here

We would kindly thank Giorgio Capello and Marcella Biddoccu for providing us with the new data sets. 

The WMO State of Global Water Resources 2022 has been launched with significant improvements over the initial edition, including the addition of soil moisture to the analyzed hydrological cycle components. Within the report, soil moisture anomalies (topsoil, 5 cm) in 2022 are ranked relative to the historical period from 2003 to 2020 on a monthly basis to comprehend near-surface soil moisture patterns. In 2022, anomalies in soil moisture corresponded to variations in river discharge conditions. For example, Europe experienced increased evapotranspiration and decreased soil moisture during the summer, attributed to drought conditions.

 “Unfortunately, in situ soil moisture observations could not be used for this edition of the report because they are still sparsely distributed in space and time. The International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) had only 42 locations with data of decent quality, temporal coverage and length of observations in 2022 out of 240 stations that had data for this year. ISMN is working on increasing this number significantly for the next report.” – Matthias Zink, Team lead ISMN (culled from the report)

The report underscores the need to intensity the monitoring of hydrological variables and sharing of data to expand our understanding of the global water cycle, which is increasingly destabilized by climate change.

We are delighted with the contribution of ISMN to this significant report by offering expert advice and consultation.

To read the full report click here.

Monthly anomaly in surface soil moisture in 2022 as ranked with respect to the historical period 2003 – 2020 (source: WMO State of Global Water Resources 2022).

We are happy to inform you, that the german network TERENO has been updated for the last two years.

We would like to thank Heye Bogena and Jürgen Sorg for the data and their support!

The International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) actively participated in the recently concluded European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly meeting which was held between 23rd and 28th of April 2023 in Vienna, Austria. EGU is the largest geoscience event in Europe with over 16,000 participants both onsite and online.

Four members of the ISMN team participated onsite at this year’s EGU while others joined online. The team organised the first ISMN splinter meeting at the EGU 2023 which was well attended by different stakeholders: soil moisture sensor manufacturers, data providers, data users and soil moisture enthusiasts. The splinter meeting aimed to foster connection within the soil moisture community to improve data sharing, knowledge sharing and scientific collaborations.

Aside the splinter meeting, Fay Boehmer also presented ISMN at an EGU 2023 session focusing on the role of subsurface runoff, soil moisture and surface-subsurface feedback in hydrology. In her presentation, she emphasized the role of soil moisture as an essential agriculture, meteorology and hydrology variable. She concluded by highlighting the ISMN efforts towards ensuring access to open and fair in-situ soil moisture data and encouraged a community-wide participation in the ISMN project.

We are happy to announce that we integrated the XMS-CAT network into ISMN. In Catalonia (Spain) the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya measures soil moisture and soil temperature at 15 different locations usually in 5, 20, 50 and 100 cm depth. Data is available from Aug 2016 until May 2023.

We would kindly thank Lola Boquera, Agnès Lladós, Jose Antonio Jara and J.Ignasi Herms for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation!

Data from the French network "SMOSMANIA" has been updated for the years 2021 and 2022!

Please note that the station Mejannes-le-Clap was closed on 29 September 2022.

We kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing us with the new datasets!

We are happy to announce that we integrated the TWENTE network into ISMN. The Twente region in the east of the Netherlands hold a network that monitors since 2009 profile soil moisture and temperature at 44 different locations.

We would kindly thank Paul Vermunt for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation!

Unfortunately the soil sensor of station 84 was taken out-of-operation due to construction work. The sensor was moved from station 84 to a new location: station 83 is now included within the ISMN.

The whole dataset of the Austrian network WEGENERNET was updated to a new version (8.0). For further details please see https://wegenernet.org/downloads/Fuchsberger-etal_2023_WPSv8-release-notes.pdf

Data from the SONTE-China network has been added to the ISMN! The network consists of 20 stations measuring soil moisture and soil temperature in 5, 10, 20 and 40 cm depth. Data is available from 2021-01-01 until 2022-01-01.

Many thanks to Chunmei Wang for providing us with data and information and supporting us during the integration process. 

The soil moisture and temperature observation data for the French network "FR_Aqui" has been updated until December 31, 2022 (whole year of 2022). Unfortunately, the records of the stations GrandCal and  Fraye stop in August 2022. They have been destroyed by a fire of the summer 2022.

Data is now available for download here.

Many thanks to Alain Kruszewski, Sylvia Dayau and Christelle Aluome for providing us with data and information.

The soil moisture and temperature observation data for the Spanish network "REMEDHUS" has been updated until January 1, 2023 (whole year of 2022).

Data is now available for download here.

Many thanks to Ángel González Zamora, José Martínez Fernández and Nilda Sánchez Martín for providing us with data and information.

The data of the Russian network Ru_CFR has been updated, and is now available until 31 December 2022!

We kindly thank Andrej Varlagin for providing the new datasets!

We are happy to announce that ISMN has been successfully transferred from TU Vienna to it's new host ICWRGC/BfG in Germany this week! So data are served from there now. The official launch event of ISMN in Germany will follow in 2023. We appreciate Irene Himmelbauer, Daniel  Aberer, Ivana Petrakovic, Elmar Sönser, Lukas Schremmer, Wouter Dorigo, Fay Boehmer, Kasjen Kramer, Tunde Olarinoye, Wolfgang Korres, Matthias Zink, Stephan Dietrich and everyone involved in the succeful transfer.

The Texan network TxSON is now available within the ISMN! The network consists of 41 stations located at various locations around Texas measuring soil moisture and soil temperature in 5 cm depth. Data is available from 30th of September 2014 until now. 

We would kindly thank Todd Caldwell, Bridget Scanlon, Tara Bongiovianni, Aaron Averett, Bisett Young and Michael Young for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation. 

The 4 stations within the network STEMS_CNR (STEMS) has been updated until 2022-09-26. 

We would kindly thank Giorgio Capello and Marcella Biddoccu for providing us with the new data sets. 

The new dataviewer is now live at ISMN!

It offers new features like the possibility to download the complete ISMN archive more quickly - without the results having to be generated first.

New options were added to filter data for climate class, land cover type, sensor depth and quality flags. In addition the user interface was upgraded (visualisation, download history overview).

Please note that by default only "soil moisture" data is downloaded, if you would like additional variables, you can add them in the "more options" menu.

More information can be found here.

We are very grateful for any feedback also if you encounter any bugs or have ideas on improvements! (ismn@bafg.de)

The new station "5.7.0 As" of the Norwegian network NVE is now included within the ISMN. Data is available from November 2017 until December 2021.

We would like to thank Fred Wenger for providing the new data!

Our colleagues at the Korea Institute of Hydrological Survey in South Korea provided us with historical datasets for both KIHS_CMC and KIHS_SMC for the years 2008-2017 and 2007-2017, respectively. In total 107 Buriable Waveguide soil moisture sensors at 37 stations were updated. Data is now available from June 2008 to December 2019 for KIHS_CMC and from June 2007 to December 2019 for KIHS_SMC.

We kindly thank Kiyoung Kim and Yongjun Lee of KIHS for their continued support!

To improve our users experience, a new dataviewer and download functionalities are being introduced.  This new tool features improved visualisation, more filtering options and download request monitoring. The download requests are saved for 20 days, during which users can revisit the ISMN website to access the requested datasets again.

For users who want to download the entire ISMN datasets, you do not have to wait again for your download request to be processed as you can now download the complete ISMN database archive within few seconds.

The beta version of the new DATA ACCESS (BETA) can be found on the ISMN homepage. We encourage users to use this new dataviewer and download tool, and provide us with feedbacks to improve on the final version that will be replacing the existing dataviewer and download tool in the near future.

The new station "Groset" of the Norwegian network NVE is now included within the ISMN. Data is available from August 2019 until 31 Dezember 2021.

We would like to thank Fred Wenger for providing the new data!

The two stations Kise and Kvarstadseter of the Norwegian network NVE have been updated until 31 Dezember 2021!

We would like to thank Fred Wenger for providing the datasets!

Information about static variables (e.g., land cover classification) are also included within downloaded data on a station level. Besides the Köppen-Geiger climate class version by Peel et al., 2007, we now also include climate class version from 2017 by Rubel et al.

As mentioned in November 2021, due to some extensive maintenance work, downloading the whole ISMN database can be faulity. 

We are close to releasing a bug fixed version but until further notice: we suggest to download the data in smaller chunks. 

Thank you! 

Data of the African network TAHMO has been updated until 7 July 2022!

The weather stations are funded through donations, therefore if you would like to contribute please find more information about donations and project under the link: https://tahmo.org/

We would like to thank Nick van de Giesen and Frank Annor for providing the datasets and for their support!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 31 May 2022.

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

In April 2022, we experienced a minor technical problem with the near-real-time (nrt) data download and processing routine. As a result, we had ca. 3 weeks downtime which lasted from first to third week of April. During this period, most of the nrt networks were not updated and thereby creating backlogs of nrt daily updates.

Through the collaborative effort of both ISMN teams at TU Wien and ICWRGC/BfG, the problem was resolved and the nrt routine has being running smoothly from the last week of April 2022.

Data from all stations within the nrt networks are now up to date!!!

We are happy to announce the Quality Assurance for Soil Moisture (QA4SM) user workshop  on June 7th 2022 in Perugia, Italy AND online: Registration QA4SM workshop.  Anyone can join! 

The QA4SM is an online validation service using model, insitu (ISMN) and satellite data: httsp://qa4sm.eu. Operations and development are currently financed through the Fiducial Reference Measurments for Soil Moisture (FRM4SM) project from ESA where also ISMN data is used as a base to characterize insitu errors. FRM4SM team members as well as Scientific Advisory Group (SAG) members will be present at the workshop. 

Registraion - as well as general information for the 6th Satellite Soil Moisture Validation and Application Workshop from June 7th to 9th 2022 in Perugia, Italy AND online can be found here: http://venti-eventi.com/ .

We hope to meet you there! 

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 April 2022.

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

We are looking forward to meeting you at our two poster presentations:

• ISMN in session A5.02: "The role of Earth Observation in climate services"

• FRM4SM in session B1.07: "Analysis Ready Data: are we there yet?"

at ESA`s Living Planet Symposium on May 23^rd - 27^th, Bonn (Germany).

You can find more information about the Living Planet Symposium here: https://lps22.esa.int/

We are pleased to inform you about the participation of the ISMN at the European Geosciences Union (EGU)  General Assembly 2022 on 

May 23^rd - 27^th , Vienna, Austria .

Please visit us at our two oral presentations regarding ISMN operations and the transfer in session HS6.1, Remote sensing of soil moisture, room 2.31 on Thursday, May 26^th, 2022.

For more information on the EGU General Assebmly 2022 please have a look here: https://www.egu22.eu/

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 March 2022.

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The data of 17 stations of the Australian network "OZNET" has been updated from 2018 till 2021.

Please note the data gaps at some of the stations.

Many thanks to Jeff Walker and Luisa White Murillo for providing us with the data

The new network STEMS_CNR (STEMS) is located in Italy and currently consists of 4 stations. At the most stations, soil moisture and soil temperature are measured from 10 to 50 cm depth. Data is available from 2017 up to now. The Network is installed in rainfed vineyard plots, with different inter-rows soil management. The meteorological data that is linked to the soil moisture stations is collected from a weather station near the plots.

We would kindly thank Giorgio Capello and Marcella Biddoccu for providing us with the data and all the relevant information for the implementation. 

The Austrian network "HOAL" has been updated until December 31st, 2021.

Please note that only five stations (HOAL-01, HOAL-04, HOAL-15, HOAL-16, HOAL-17) and only datasets in certain depths could be updated.

Many thanks to Isabella Pfeil for providing us with the data!

The French network "FR_Aqui" has been updated until January 1, 2022.

Many thanks to Jean Pierre Wigneron, Christelle Aluome, Alain Kruszewski and Sylvia Dayau for providing us with the data.

The data of the Russian network Ru_CFR has been updated, and is available until 31 December 2021!

We kindly thank Andrej Varlagin for providing the datasets and for his support during the integration phase!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 February 2022.

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

Data from the French network "SMOSMANIA" has been updated for the year 2020.

Please note that in 2020 and 2021 no large maintenance work, such as replacing probes, could be made because of the covid situation.

For the station Cabrieres dAvignon the soilmoisture sensor at 30cm depth was decommissioned. Data is only available until 2020-09-11. The same applies to the station Mejannes-le-Clap, SM30cm is only available until 2019-11-01.

We kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing us with the new datasets!

The Spanish network "REMEDHUS" has been updated until January 1, 2022 (whole year of 2021).

Note that the Paredinas (J03) station has data until 4th of November 2021. This station stopped working and will not be reinstalled.

Many thanks to José Martínez Fernández and Nilda Sánchez Martín for providing us with data and information.

Due to some extensive maintenance work, downloading the whole ISMN database can be faulity. 

Until further notice: we suggest to download the data in smaller chunks. 

Thank you! 

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 31 December 2021.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

Since 2009, the International Soil Moisture Network serves as a centralised data hosting facility for globally available in situ soil moisture measurements!
Today, the ISMN contains more than 70 networks with almost 3000 stations and a growing community with more than 3000 active users! 

Many thanks to ESA, data providers and all other contributors for enabling the great success of the ISMN!

Check out our new paper here: https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/25/5749/2021/!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 September 2021.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai  and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

A new station has been added to the network "iRON", located in USA. The station is called Castle Creek and it provides records for soil moisture at three different depths (5, 20 and 50 [cm]), soil and air temperature and precipitation since 2020.

We would like to thank Elise Osenga for providing us with the data and for her help during the implementation process!

The data of the Italian network "HYDROL-NET_PERUGIA" has been updated, and is available until the end of 2016.

We want to thank Renato Morbidelli and Alessia Flammini for providing us with the data and their support during the implementation process!

The SMN-SDR network is located in China and it consists of 34 stations measuring soil moisture and soil temperature. Of the 34 stations, there are 20 stations collecting precipitation measurements as well. The soil moisture sensors are positioned at five measuring depths (3, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cm). The data is available from June 2018 until the end of 2019. For information on how to calibrate the raw soil moisture data before usage, see here.

We would like to thank Tianjie Zhao for providing us with the data and for the support during the implementation process.

We finished updating the ISMN quality flags in the database. If you don't use the ISMN quality flags (see example below) you are not affected. If you do then be advised that compared to previously more observations are tagged 'dubious' as also  GLDAS flags (tags at negative GLDAS soil temperature (D03) and soil moisture rise without GLDAS precipitation (D05)) for the years 2018 - 09/2020 are included. 

example from data file (stm-files):

Further details on the quality control can be found in the preprint of an upcoming 10-year anniversary paper on the ISMN (https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-2) and in our forum.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 31 July 2021.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Adelina Mihai  and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The data of the Italian network "UMSUOL" has been updated, and is available until 15 May 2017.

We want to thank Andrea Pasquali, Marco Bitelli and Giulia Villani for providing the data!

Data of the African network TAHMO has been updated until 14 July 2021!

The weather stations are funded through donations, therefore if you would like to contribute please find more information about donations and project under the link: https://tahmo.org/

We would like to thank Nick van de Giesen and Frank Annor for providing the datasets and for their support!

The Danish network HOBE has been shut down since 2019, thus there won't be any further datasets published.

We would like to thank Karsten Høgh Jensen for their contribution to the ISMN.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 June 2021.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The data of the American network "iRON" has been updated, and is available until 1 January 2021.

We want to thank Elise Osenga for providing the updated data and her support during the implementation process!

Because of database maintainance and a reprocessing of ISMN quality control, the near real-time networks SNOTEL, SCAN, USCRN, WEGENERNET, ARM, FMI and COSMOS are currently not updated. We apologise for the inconvenience and we're working on the issue to provide you with the latest soil moisture data again soon. 

At the moment we are reprocessing the database with an updated quality control software. If you don't use the ISMN quality control you are not affected. If you do then be advised that in future more observations will be tagged 'dubious' as we are also updating GLDAS supported flags (tags at negative GLDAS soil temperature (D03) and soil moisture rise without GLDAS precipitation (D05)) for the years 2018 - 09/2020. In the individual data-files you will find updated entries in the qflag (quality flag) column.

example from data file (stm-files):

Further details on the quality control can be found in the preprint of an upcoming 10-year anniversary paper on the ISMN (https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2021-2). 

A new ISMN reader version (v.1.0) with new Interface and features (such as simple metadata extraction and reading from zip file) was released on GitHub, (https://github.com/TUW-GEO/ismn). This tool greatly facilitates the reading of data from ISMN downloads. Thank you Wolfgang Preimesberger for the complete overhaul of our reader software and to Sebastian Hahn for providing the initial new interface structure and to all our active contributers!

NVE is a network of monitoring stations of the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). Soil moisture, soil temperature, air temperature are measured and the data is provided as average daily values. Currently only 3 stations are integrated within ISMN, however, the new stations will be provided, since there are 12 active stations. At the most stations, soil moisture and soil temperature are measured at more than 5 depths down to 2 m depth.The data is available from 2012 up to 2019.

We would like to thank Fred Wenger for providing us with the data and for the support during the integration process! 

On request from the data provider the network CARBOAFRICA has been renamed to "SD_DEM" and its station SD_DEM has been renamed to "Demokeya" respectively.

The station called Demokeya in Sudan was part of the CARBOAFRICA project (https://www.carboafrica.eu/) but it does not represent the entire network.

SD_DEM was its Fluxnet name. We kindly thank Jonas Ardö for the continued support!

The data of the network VDS in Myanmar has been updated. 

At the station Thanatpin and Hpayargyi the data is available by 29 December 2020, the station Irrigation Technology Centre is updated until 1 September 2020, while at the station Alaigni the data is available until 14 February 2021.

We kindly thank Ileen de Kat and Richard de Jeu for providing us with the data!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 April 2021.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The near real-time networks SNOTEL, SCAN, USCRN, WEGENERNET, ARM and FMI are updated again daily. After we recovered a broken disk on our server and following a system software update we experienced problems in accessing our database server remotely. Thankfully, the issues were resolved and we would like to kindly thank our provider networks for their continued support and apologise for any inconvenience. 

The French network "FR_Aqui" has been updated until January 1, 2021. Please note a data gap from mid February 2020 to mid May 2020 for station "parcmeteo" for soil moisture and soil temperature (due to sensor loss). For more information on the network please have a look here: FR_Aqui. 

Merci beaucoup to Jean Pierre Wigneron, Christelle Aluome, Alain Kruszewski and Sylvia Dayau for providing us with data and information. 

The Russian network "Ru_CFR" has been added to the ISMN. 

Ru_CFR is short for Russia Central Forest Reserve, located in the European part of Russia in the Tver region. It is hosted by the A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. The network consists of two sites measuring soil moisture, soil temperature, air temperature and precipitation. Soil moisture is measured by horizontally installed Hydraprobe II sensors at 0.05, 0.15, 0.5, 0.8 and 1 [m]. Observations are available from May 2015 until the end of 2020. 

We kindly thank Andrej Varlagin for providing the datasets and for his support during the integration phase!

Our colleagues at the Korea Institute of Hydrological Survey in South Korea provided us with another dataset for both KIHS_CMC and KIHS_SMC for the year 2018. In total 107 Buriable Waveguide soil moisture sensors at 37 stations were updated. Data is now available from March 2018 to December 2019 for both networks.

We kindly thank Yongjun Lee of KIHS, Yeon gil Lee (KIHS_CMC) and Minha Choi (KIHS_SMC) for their continued support!

The datasets of the Chilean network "LAB-net" have been updated.

For the stations of San Pedro (SPCS) and Chamonate (CCS) data is now available until 25-Jun-2020 and 14-Jul-2020, respectively. The datasets of Oromo station (OCS) are available until 29-Nov-2019.

Furthermore, a new station named Nirehuao Site (NCS) was added to the ISMN, providing data from 25-Dez-2019 until 02-Feb-2020.

We want to thank Cristian Mattar Bader and Italo Giuliano Moletto Lobos for providing the updated datasets.

Data from the French network "SMOSMANIA" has been updated for the year 2019.

Please be aware that at following stations soil moisture and/or soil temperature probes have been replaced:

• Condom: soil moisture probe at 5 cm renewed on 14 February 2019
• Lahas: soil moisture probe at 10 cm renewed on 14 February 2019
• Lahas: soil moisture probe at 20 cm renewed on 29 March 2019
• Savenes: all probes renewed on 29 March 2019,
• Barnas: all probes renewed on 12 September 2019
• Berzeme: soil moisture probe at 10 cm renewed on 11 September 2019
• Lezignan: temperature probe at 20 cm renewed on 16 October 2019
• Narbonne: soil moisture probe at 30 cm renewed on 16 October 2019

Soil moisture probes are replaced with ThetaProbe ML3, while soil temperature probes remain same as before.

We kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing us with the new datasets and for informing us about the sensor changes.

The new network NAQU has been added to the ISMN!

The NAQU network consists of 11 stations located in Tibet at elevations over 4000 m. Soil moisture and soil temperature have been measured at five different depths: 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, 40 cm, and 80 cm. The data is partially available from 2010 and up to 2019.

We would like to thank Dr. Yijian Zeng for providing us with the data and for the support during the implementation process!

Ten new stations located in the city of Suwon in South Korea were added to the network 'SKKU'.

All stations are equipped with a 5TM soil moisture and soil temperature sensors.

The data availability ranges from 31.08.2015 to 29.11.2017 depending on the station.

We kindly thank Prof. Minha Choi for providing us with the data!

The data of the Chinese network "MAQU" has been updated!

At several stations, the old datasets are reprocessed and the soil moisture and soil temperature data is available at different depths in better quality. The data is available in the period from 2008 up to 2019.

Seven new stations have been added to the network: NST_21, NST_22, NST_24, NST_25, NST_30, NST_31, and NST_32, measuring soil moisture and temperature at five different depths.

We would like to thank Dr. Yijian Zeng for providing us with the data and for the support during the implementation process!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 28 February 2021.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The new network NGARI has been added to the ISMN!

The NGARI network consists of 23 stations located in Tibet at elevations over 4000 m. Soil moisture and soil temperature have been measured at five different depths: 5 cm, 10 cm, 20 cm, 40 cm, and 80 cm. The data is available from 2010 up to 2019.

We would like to thank Dr. Yijian Zeng for providing us with the data and for the support during the implementation process!

Because of system maintainance of our database, the near real-time networks SNOTEL, SCAN, USCRN, WEGENERNET, ARM, FMI and COSMOS are currently not updated. We apologise for the inconvenience and we're working on the issue to provide you with the latest soil moisture data again soon. 

189 stations of RUSWET-AGRO and two of PBO-H2O shared the same_station name in the database (the unique identifier station_id was different). This may have caused data loss in some cases, as the ISMN-download (zipfile) is generated using the station names. Therefore we added a #number (#1, #2, .. ) to each station with a duplicate station name. 

As an example: The two PBO-H2O stations "SEVILLETA" were renamed  "SEVILLETA #1" and "SEVILLETA #2"). The order is based on the station_id (i.e.: "#1" was added to the station_name of the station with the lowest station_id, "#2" to the next station_name and so forth). We apologise for any inconvenience. 

Click to see forum entry with complete station list

The new network HOAL has been added to the ISMN!

The HOAL-SoilNet network has been set up in the Hydrological Open Air Laboratory (HOAL) in Petzenkirchen, Austria, in a 66ha agricultural catchment. Soil moisture has been monitored since 2013 at 33 locations at four depths. Measurements are taken from permanent stations, as well as from stations that are temporarily installed in cropland.

We would like to thank Isabella Pfeil and Günter Blöschl for providing the datasets and for their support during the implementation process!

The German network MOL-RAO has been updated until 30 June 2020 at the station Falkenberg and until 14 September 2016 at the station Kehrigk. The data at the station Falkenberg has been reprocessed for the year 2013, and at the station Kehrigh for the years 2009 - 2013. The reprocessing was necessary because of a new version release of the data.

We would like to thank Udo Rummel for sharing data with us!

Please check out the new ISMN url: ismn.earth !!!

Check out our ISMN contribution in the newly published Austrian Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Inventory Report 2020: https://www.zamg.ac.at/cms/de/dokumente/topmenu/gcos/gcos-report-2020

The new network TAHMO has been added to the ISMN!

The Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) aims to develop a vast network of weather stations across Africa. Current and historic weather data is important for agricultural, climate monitoring, and many hydro-meteorological applications. 
The data is made available through TAHMO with the support of the H2020 TWIGA project under grant agreement No.776691.
Within ISMN 70 stations have been integrated, located in 6 different countries across Africa: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast.

Soil moisture has been measured in depths from 5 cm up to 2 m in the ground. Besides soil moisture, precipitation, air, and soil temperature measurements are also available. The earliest measurements are available from 2015 up to the end of 2020 . 

The weather stations are funded through donations, therefore if you would like to contribute please find some more information about donations and project under the link: https://tahmo.org/

We would like to thank Nick van de Giesen and Frank Annor for providing the datasets and for their support during the implementation process!

Six new stations located in CA, USA were added to the network 'FLUXNET-AMERIFLUX'.

All stations are equipped with soil moisture, soil temperature and air temperature sensors, while all but "Twitchell corn" offer precipitation data in addition.

The data availability ranges from 2007/04 to 2020/07 depending on the station.

Please note that data of all soil temperature sensors and soil moisture sensors Campbell Scientific CS655 (at stations "Bouldin Island Alfalfa" and "Bouldin Island corn") and Delta-T ThetaProbe ML2X (at station "Sherman Barn") are the average of three sensors.

We kindly thank Daphne Szutu and Dennis Baldocchi for providing us with the data!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 December 2020.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

After a successful version upgrade of our database software, the near real-time networks SNOTEL, SCAN, USCRN, WEGENERNET, ARM and FMI are updated again daily. Many thanks for the continued support from our provider networks. We apologise for the inconvenience caused. 

Because of a version upgrade of our database software, the near real-time networks SNOTEL, SCAN, USCRN, WEGENERNET, ARM, FMI and COSMOS are currently not updated. We apologise for the inconvenience and we're working on the issue to provide you with the latest soil moisture data again within the next few days. 

The data of the Romanian network RSMN have been updated until 31 October 2020.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The ARM network is again part of the real-time routine. The data is updated daily at 17 stations, including 6 new stations, while the rest of them are no longer active.

Please note that there is currently a data gap between 2014 and August 2020 when the routine started operating again. This data gap will be handled at the earliest convenience.

The new network VDS has been added to the ISMN!

VDS is located in Myanmar and operated by the VanderSat. The network consists of 4 sites measuring soil moisture and soil temperature. Soil moisture is measured at 0.01-0.1 [m], 0.1 [m] and 0.2 [m] depths. Observations are available for two different periods: during 2017 and 2018, and from 2020 to present.

We would like to thank Ileen de Kaat for providing the datasets and for their support during the implementation process!

The QA4SM included ISMN data into their Validation Service for satellite soil moisture products against in-situ and model reference data. Furthermore, a new feature has been introduced, which makes it possible to publish QA4SM validations by their owners to Zenodo where they can be referenced with a DOI (e.g., https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3934616).

The Korean network KIHS_SMC has been added to the ISMN.

KIHS_SMC is operated by the Enivronmental and Remote Sensing Lab of the Korea Institute of Hydrological Survey. The 51 soil moisture sensors (depths: 0.1 to 0.6 [m]) are located on a mountain slope distributed over 19 stations in close proximity of one another. Observations are available from 21.03.2019 - 05.12.2019. 

Many thanks to Yeon gil Lee and Minha Choi for providing the datasets. We would also like to thank Mr. Yongjun Lee for his invaluble support in implementing KIHS_SMC!

Please note that soil moisture at KIHS_SMC is provided at a 2-hourly interval!

The Korean network KIHS_CMC has been added to the ISMN.

The Korea Institute of Hydrological Survey have been running the Cheongmicheon (CMC) network since 2009 as an annual project from March to December. It comprises 56 TDR Buriable Waveguide soil moisture sensors at 18 stations located on an area the size of a football field. All stations have a sensor at depth 0.1 [m] and varying additional depths (at 0.3, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.9 [m]). Observations are available from 20.03.2019 - 10.12.2019. 

Many thanks to Yeon gil Lee, Kiyoung Kim and Yongjun Lee for providing the datasets and especially for their most dilligent support during the implementation phase!

Please note that soil moisture at KIHS_CMC is provided at a 2-hourly interval!

The network HSC_SELMACHEON along with its station Selmacheon have been renamed to "HSC_SEOLMACHEON" and "Seolmacheon" respectively.

This change was unavoidable since we learned recently that Seolmacheon is the correct romanization of the Korean River of the same name (Korean: 설마천).

We apologize for any inconvenience!

Upon request from the data providers the network HYU_CHEONGMICHEON, which comprised one station with soil moisture data from 2011, was removed from the ISMN.

We would like to thank Minha Choi, Yoomi Hur and Seingjae Han their cooperation with the ISMN and wish them well.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN have been updated until 30 June 2020.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The datasets of the German network "TERENO" have been updated.

New Data is available for the stations Merzenhausen, Schoeneseiffen (both until 21 April 2020), Gevenich and Wildenrath (until 24 and 25 March 2020 respectively).

In the future new soil moisture data will be uploaded automatically as soon as it is available to us.

Many thanks to Jürgen Sorg for providing us with the data!

The datasets of the Canadian network "RISMA" have been updated, and are now available until March 2020 for the subnetworks "Saskatchewan" and "Manitoba", December 2019 at the stations ON3, ON4, ON6 from the subnetwork "Ontario", February 2020 at the stations ON2 and ON5 and November 2017 at the station CEF.

One new station, MB13, with soil moisture measurements in five different depths has been implemented to the subnetwork "Manitoba". The data is available from November 2014 until November 2019.

We would like to thank Kurt Gottfried for providing the datasets and for the support during the implementation process.

The network "COSMOS" is moving their system to another server and is therefore not updated on a daily basis. We will resume the updates as soon as new data are available. The last updates we received are from 28.03.2020.

We kindly thank William J. Shuttleworth and Marek Zreda for the info and their continued support.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15 April 2020.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us with the data!

The Spanish network "IPE" has been added to the ISMN.

IPE is located in the autonomous community of Aragon, in north-eastern Spain, and hosted by the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (IPE) of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The network consists of two sites measuring soil moisture, soil temperature, air temperature and precipitation. Soil moisture is measured at 0 - 0.06 [m] and 0 - 0.3 [m] (Aguero) and 0.1 - 0.1 [m] (Penaflor). Observations are available from April 2008 until March 2020.

We would like to thank Jesús Julio Camarero Martínez and Jesús Revilla de Lucas for providing the datasets and for their support during the implementation process!

Data from the French network "SMOSMANIA" was updated for the year 2018.

Please be aware that at following stations soil moisture and/or soil temperature probes have been replaced:

• MEJANNES-LE-CLAP: all probes renewed on 11 June 2018
• NARBONNES: soil moisture probe at -10 cm renewed on 6 June 2018
• MOUTHOUMET: soil moisture probe at -10 cm renewed on 11 December 2018

Please note that at the station Berzeme after 12 March 2018 there is no available data for soil moisture at 10 cm depth, due to unrelieble sensor behaviour.

The station Prades-Le-Lez was moved to the new location on 7 December 2018.

We kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing us with the new datasets and for informing us about the sensor changes.

It is now official: we are pleased to inform you about the participation of the ISMN at the European Geosciences Union (EGU)  General Assembly 2020 on 

May 4^th -8^th , online live chats .

Due to the Corona Virus, Austria (and most of the rest of Europe) is currently under shut down. But the organisation team of EGU decided to hold live chats whithin this week.

Please check out the two session we will participate:

For more information on the EGU General Assebmly 2020 please have a look here: https://egu2020.eu/

Patitapu Soil Moisture Network (PTSMN) is the very first network located in New Zealand.

Initiated within a doctoral research project (Massey University) and as part of the Primary Growth Partnership Project, the PTSMN network consists of 20 stations with soil moisture measurements in 4 different depths each (0.07- 0.13m , 0.17-0.23m , 0.27-0.33m , 0.37-0.43m). Observations are available from November 2016 until mid of November 2018 and will be updated in future.

For more information on the network please find the publication here: https://doi.org/10.1016/J.AGWAT.2019.03.002

We want to give our warmest thanks to Istvan Hajdu for participating within the ISMN and for his support during the implementation process.

The GROW Observatory is the first continental-scale citizen science project to monitor soil moisture over an extended period and at unprecedented spatial density. Through GROW, thousands of citizens from 13 European countries have come together creating an unprecedented network of more than 6,000 low-cost soil sensors. Here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRkFnRo-WZg&feature=youtu.be) you can see a short movie that will give you more insights in the project objectives and results.

The GEO Department of TU Wien carried out an extensive evaluation of the low-cost sensor performances against lab measurements and professional probes. For more details check our recently published article: doi.org/10.5194/gi-9-117-2020. Furthermore, in-situ measurements collected by GROWers (only a subset, though) have also been included in the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN). Have a look at https://geo.tuwien.ac.at/insitu/data_viewer/ if you want to download this dataset, e.g., for your own satellite validation analysis.

The above mentioned subset consists of 150 stations, located in the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary and Greece. Each station measures surface soil moisture (0.0m - 0.1m) and air temperature using low-cost sensors. Observations are available from 08.02.2017 until 08.10.2019.

For more information have a look at our forum (GROW). There you will also find a figure that is one of the project's outputs and represents a soil moisture map based on interpolation of the in-situ sensors.

We would like to thank Drew Hemment, Mel Woods, and everyone involved within GROW for collecting and sharing the data with the ISMN.

The US-network "FLUXNET-AMERIFLUX" has been updated until February 12, 2020. Since the provider supplied us with recently reprocessed data, we were able to update also previously available observations (2000-2013). For the two stations Tonzi Ranch and Vaira Ranch near Sacramento, California there are now almost 20 years of hourly soil moisture observations available.

We kindly thank Siyan Ma and Dennis D. Baldocchi for providing us the data. 

The datasets of the network 'AMMA-CATCH' are now available until the December 31, 2017 at the stations in Benin and until December 31, 2018 at the stations in Niger.

We would like to thank Thierry Pellarin for providing the datasets.

The French network "FR_Aqui" has been updated until January 1, 2020.

Many thanks to Jean Pierre Wigneron, Christelle Aluome, Alain Kruszewski and Sylvia Dayau for providing us with data and information. 

The datasets of the American network "iRON" have been updated, and are now available until 31 December 2019.

We want to thank Elise Osenga for providing the updated data and her support during the implementation process!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN have been updated until 31.1.2020.

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data!

The datasets of the German network "TERENO" have been updated.

For the stations Gevenich and Schoeneseiffen the data is available until 23 January 2020, and for the stations Merzenhausen and Wildenrath until 22 and 29 January 2020 respectively.  

Many thanks to Jürgen Sorg for providing us with the data!

The Spanish network "REMEDHUS" has been updated until January 1, 2020. Please be aware the plot of station Canizal (K13) may have been irrigated and that there were a few short-term breakdowns at the stations Las Arenas (F06), Concejo del Monte (N09) and Las Bodegas (H13) (see forum).

Many thanks to José Martínez Fernández and Nilda Sánchez Martín for providing us with data and information. 

The data of the Romanian network RSMN have been updated until 31.12.2019. Battery issues have been solved and the data are available again from 5.12.2019 at the stations  Alexandria (15489) and Rosiorii de Vede (15470) and from 6.12.2019 at the stations Oardea (15080), Satu Mare (15010), Slatina (15434), Iasi (15090) and Calarasi (15460).

Please note that the station Chisineu Cris (15136) still shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum).

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data!

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15.11.2019. Please note that the stations Ordea (15080), Satu Mare (15010), Slatina (15434), Rosiorii de Vede (15470), Alexandria (15489), Iasi (15090) and Calarasi (15460) still have issues with empty bateries.

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data!

The Italian network "IMA_CAN1" has been added to the ISMN.

IMA_CAN1 is a soil moisture network located in the Piedmont region, in the north-west of Italy, and hosted by the Institute for Agricultural and Earthmoving Machines (IMAMOTER) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). It is installed in three vineyard plots, with different inter-rows soil management. The plots are also monitored for runoff and soil erosion.

The network consists of 12 stations measuring soil moisture and soil temperature. Observations are available from August 2011 until December 2015.

We would like to thank Marcella Biddoccu and Giorgio Capello for providing the datasets and for their support during the implementation process.

We are very happy to announce that funding for the next 17 months was granted by ESA! 

The ISMN has been kindly supported for many years by different ESA programms (SMOS Earth Observation Program and lastly IDEAS+). ESA has kindly included us in the new Quality Assurance for Earth Observation (QA4EO) programm starting this November 2019 until end of March 2021. This will give us the means to add new networks and datasets, and maintain the functionality of the ISMN. Currently, we are exploring alternative long term funding possibilities to continue the operation of the ISMN after this date, but we have no commitment so far. We are still confident that we'll find an appropriate solution on time but if worst comes to worst we may have to reduce the services provided by the ISMN (e.g. the implementation of new networks and network updates) until further financing is ensured. Any suggestions from your side would be highly appreciated!

We greatly thank ESA, our data providers and of course our users for their support and interest.

Any suggestions or ideas from your side on how to keep the ISMN running after March 2021 are always welcome and can be posted with a new entry in our Forum. 

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until 15.10.2019. Please note that at the stations Oradea (15080), Satu Mare (15010), Slatina (15434), Rosiorii de Vede (15470), Alexandria (15489), Iasi (15090) and Calarasi (15460) the soil moisture and soil temperature sensors have reached the end of their battery life. The responsible personnel has already been notified by Eduard Luca and hopefully the issue will be resolved shortly.

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data.

Reoccurring setting changes for 44 stations of the US near -real time network "SNOTEL" starting already last year (2018). These stations are now integrated in the near real time update again since the setting changes seem to be stable.

Unfortunately, five of these stations are not providing soil moisture and soil temperature values anymore. For further information please have a look here: Forum SNOTEL .

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until the 15th of July 2019. Please consider that there is no data provided for July 12 likely as a result of a connection error to the insitu stations. Soil moisture and soil temperature data are available again from June 4 onwards for the station Slatina!  

A big thank you to Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi of RSMN for providing us with their data!

The data of the Danish network "HOBE" have been updated and are now available until 13th March 2019. Please note that not all the stations are updated to this date. Furthermore, there are some data gaps (see forum).

We kindly thank Frederik Uldall and Karsten Høgh Jensen for providing the new data!

The datasets of the German network "TERENO" have been updated.

For the stations Wildenrath, Gevenich, and Merzenhausen data is now available until 02-Apr-2019. Soil moisture and soil temperature data collected at Wildenrath station are partially odd and show gaps (see forum). Nearly the same partly applies to Merzenhausen (see here). Schoeneseiffen data is now available until 25-Apr-2019 data gaps for soil temperature (see forum).

We would like to thank Jürgen Sorg for providing the updated datasets!

There are now 7 additional stations available for the network SCAN. Two new stations are located in Alaska and five are located in Missouri. The measurements of these stations start in 2018 and will be updated in near real time. In total the network contains 239 stations.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until the 15th of April 2019. For the station "Oradea" soil moisture suspiciously drops and shows characteristics of a "low plateau" (see forum). Moreover, please consider that another 24 hour data-gap in the entire network has occurred on the 11th of April 2019, likely caused by connection errors to the in-situ stations.

We would like to thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data!

This python package reads data from the ISMN data format. It is now at version 0.3 and can be installed via pip.

The new version of the package incorporates the following developments:

·         The user can fully exploit the ancillary layers of the ISMN data by accessing the land cover and climate class information stored in the metadata. These fields are returned in the metadata of each station and can also be used to filter the stations chosen for analysis.

·         The package now uses cartopy instead of basemap for plotting routines. This is due to basemap no longer being supported past 2020.

·         Please be aware that only ISMN data in CEOP  format is supported not in the header+values format which also can be choosen for the ISMN data download. For more information on ISMN download formats please have a look here: https://ismn.geo.tuwien.ac.at/en/data-access/.

The package is distributed via PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/ismn and the source code is available on github: https://github.com/TUW-GEO/ismn.

Futher information can be found on: https://readthedocs.org/projects/ismn/. 
 

We are looking forward to meeting you at our poster "The International Soil Moisture Network in support of High Resolution Soil Moisture Validation" in session A.4.12 - High Resolution Soil Moisture and Perspective Applications at ESA`s Living Planet Symposium on

May 13^th - 17^th, Milan (Italy).

You can find more information about the Living Planet Symposium here: https://lps19.esa.int/

We are pleased to inform you about the participation of the ISMN at the European Geosciences Union (EGU)  General Assembly 2019 on 

April 8^th -12^th , Vienna, Austria .

Please visit us at our poster "The International Soil Moisture Network in support of Satellite Soil Moisture Validation" in session HS6.4 - Remote sensing of soil moisture.

For more information on the EGU General Assebmly 2019 please have a look here: https://egu2019.eu/

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated, and is now available until mid-February 2019. Please note that another 24 hour data-gap at all stations has occurred on the 8th of January, likely as a result of connection errors to the in-situ stations.

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data.

You might have noticed that the Google Maps background in the ISMN data portal was not working correctly since August 2018. This was caused by policy changes of Google Maps.

We decided to keep the map open source, and since February we are online with our new data portal based on OpenStreetMap. 

Notification: New release of ismn package (v0.3)

This python package reads data from the ISMN database. It is now at version 0.3 and can be installed via pip.

The new version of the package incorporates the following developments:

·         The user can fully exploit the ancillary layers of the ISMN data by accessing the land cover and climate class information stored in the metadata. These fields are returned in the metadata of each station and can also be used to filter the stations chosen for analysis.

·         The package now uses cartopy instead of basemap for plotting routines. This is due to basemap no longer being supported past 2020.

·         Please be aware that only ISMN data in CEOP format is supported not in the header+values format which also can be chosen for the ISMN data download. For more information on ISMN download formats please have a look here: https://ismn.geo.tuwien.ac.at/en/data-access/.

The package is distributed via PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/ismn and the source code is available on github: https://github.com/TUW-GEO/ismn.

Further information can be found on: https://readthedocs.org/projects/ismn/. 

Data from the French network "SMOSMANIA" was updated for the year 2017. Please be aware that at following stations soil moisture and/or soil temperature probes have been replaced:

• MONTAUT: all soil moisture and soil temperature probes changed on 20 September 2017
• CREON-D-ARMAGNAC: all soil moisture and soil temperature probes changed on 11 October 2017
• LAHAS: soil temperature probe at -30cm replaced on 11 October 2017
• SAINT-FELIX-DE-LAURAGAIS: soil moisture probe at -20cm replaced on 16 October 2017

We kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing us with the new dataset and for informing us about the sensor changes.

The datasets of the Australian network "OZNET" have been updated, and are now available until August 2018.

Please note that some stations show data gaps. Visit the Forum for more details.

We want to thank Jeff Walker and Mei Sun Yee for sharing the data and their support during the implementation process.

The datasets of the American network "iRON" have been updated, and are now available until the end of 2018.

Please note that one soil moisture sensor at the "Brush Creek" station stopped working for approx. 2 months, and that the entire "Independence Pass" station encountered a connection issue in April 2018.
Please visit the Forum to have more information.

We want to kindly thank Elise Osenga for providing the updated data.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated until the 31st of December 2018. For the station "Slatina" soil moisture and soil temperature data is available until the 28th of November, as the sensor is currently not delivering data. 

We would like to thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data.

The Spanish network "REMEDHUS" has been updated until 1st January 2019. Please note that station 'J14' is no longer operational.

Many thanks to José Martínez Fernández and Nilda Sánchez Martín for providing us with data and information. 

The data from the Polish network "BIEBRZA_S-1" for all stations, in the two active clusters (out of three), are updated and now available until begin of December 2018.

We kindly thank Jan Musial for providing the new datasets.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN has been updated, and is now available until mid-November 2018. For the station "Dej" soil moisture and soil temperature data is available until the 10th of October, as the sensor seems to be out of order. Please note that there are some 24 hour data-gaps at all stations occurring several times this year (17.02, 18.02, 26.04, 06.08, 21.08 and 26.08), which were the result of connection errors to the in-situ stations.

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data.

Soil temperature and precipitation data from GLDAS Noah is used within the ISMN quality control procedures to evaluate the plausibility of in-situ soil moisture readings (flags D03 and D05).

GLDAS version 1.0 (dataset from 2000 onwards) discontinued by end of 2016 but a new version 2.1 (dataset from 2000 until near real time) has been released. Thus, the integraion of the new GLDAS version 2.1 became necessary.

This change brought us the opportunity to integrate also soil temperature datasets in deeper layers (up to depth of two meters) for version 2.0 (datast from 1948 to 2010) and 2.1 . Within the upcoming months it is planned to reprocess the entire ISMN database due to the this development.

The datasets of the American network "iRON" have been updated, and are now available until mid May 2018.

Besides, a new station was added to the network, namely "Glassier Ranch". This station is located at an altitude of 1970 m, and is surrounded by tall grass. Soil moisture readings might be impacted by nearby irrigation. Data for the "Glassier Ranch" station are available since the end of July 2014.

We want to thank Elise Osenga for providing the updated data and her support during the implementation process.

The datasets of the German network "TERENO" have been updated.

Data for the stations Wildenrath and Gevenich is available until 17-Jul-2018. There is a data gap for the station Wildenrath from 9-Mar-2018 to 10-Apr-2018 and some of the sensors show an unrealistic behaviour.

For the station Merzenhausen data is available until the end of May 2018. From January 19^th 2018 only two of the four precipitation sensors and one of three coupled soil moisture and soil temperature  sensors, present at every depth (5, 20 and 50 cm), provide observations.

We would like to thank Jürgen Sorg for granting access to the updated datasets.

The datasets of the US network "PBO_H2O" have been updated until 2017-12-16 and has been set inactive as of this date.

Data for this network was expanded from 2011 < near real time to 2006 < near real time. This network is based on in situ retrivals on the average of multiple GPS statellite tracks. New quality control methods on their raw data were applied: 

- negative VWC (volumetric water content) is not allowed

- VWC < 0.55 will not be allowed

- Only in situ data is stored when more than 5 satellites are present

- soil moisture data is removed when the vegetation water content < 2 kg/m/m

Stations okl1(data until 2016-05-02), p130 (data until 2016-06-11) and p775 (data until 2017-05-27) have been removed due to their unreliability.

Thank you so much Kristine Larson for sending us the data and explaining your quality control methods and for always replying so promptly to our questions.

The French network "FR_Aqui" has been added to the ISMN.

FR_Aqui is located in the Aquitaine region, in the south-west of France, and hosted by the National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA). The network consists of 5 stations measuring soil moisture and soil temperature in 6 different depths. Observations are available from January 2012 until January 2018.

We would like to thank Christelle Aluome and Jean-Pierre Wigneron for providing the datasets and for their support during the implementation process.

As the COSMOS data server is up and running again  the ISMN is providing the COSMOS data again in near-real time.

The data of the Romanian network RSMN is updated regularly on a monthly basis and is now available until 30th April 2018.

We kindly thank Eduard Luca and Andrei Diamandi for providing us the data.

22-25 October 2018, George Masion University, Fairfax Campus (Washingtion DC area), USA

The purpose of the 5th Satellite Soil Moisture Validation and Application Workshop (October 24-25 2018) is to discuss and reconcile recent advances in the development, validation and application of global integrated soil moisture products that utilizes satellite observations. The workshop series is unique by bringing together satellite soil moisture users and developers to focus on derivation, validation and exploitation of soil moisture data from both passive and active microwave satellite missions (SMAP, SMOS, ASCAT, AMRS-2, Sentinel-1, and other legacy missions) and electro-optical instruments (MODIS, VIIRS, Landsat et al.).

The workshop will be held in conjunction with the SMAP Cal/Val workshop (October 22-23 2018).

More information can be found on http://genri.gmu.edu/smw2018/

The Chinese network "CTP_SMTMN" has been updated until 19th September 2016.

We would like to thank Dr. Zhao Long and Prof. Kun Yang for providing the new data.

Due to the replacement of soil moisture and soil temperature sensors at the French network "SMOSMANIA" the data was reprocessed for 2016 at stations Urgons, Creon dArmagnac, La Grand Combe and Barnas. Station Pezenas has been moved 200m from its former position. Considering this change we have now a station called Pezenas_old at the old position (with data from 2008-11-22 until 2016-04-18) and a new station called Pezenas at the new position (with data starting from 2016-04-19 until end of 2016) implemented in the ISMN. 

We kindly thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for informing us about the changes.

The datasets of three stations from the Italian network "UMBRIA" have been updated and are now available until 31st December 2017. The stations concerned are: Cerbara, Petrelle, and Torre_Olmo.

We would like to thank Luca Brocca and Luca Ciabatta for providing the updated datasets.

The Spanish network "REMEDHUS" has been updated until 1st January 2018. Please be aware that the plot of station Canizal (K13) may have been irrigated and data of station Atalaya (J14) is only available until 2017-12-11.

Many thanks to José Martínez Fernández and Nilda Sánchez Martín for providing us with data and information. 

The datasets of the German network "TERENO" were reprocessed and updated for the period from end of October 2017 to mid Januar 2018. The reason for the reprocessing was a data gap during November 2017.

We kindly thank Jürgen Sorg for providing the updated datasets.

The COSMOS data server is currently down, therefore the COSMOS data is not available in near-real time. You will be notified as soon as the server is up and running again.

We would like to thank Marek Zreda for providing this information.

The datasets of the Danish network "HOBE" have been updated and are now available until 28th February 2017. Please note that not all the stations are updated to this date.

We kindly thank Frederik Uldall and Victor Zaldo Fornies for providing the new data.

All stations of the French network "SMOSMANIA" have been updated until the 01.01.2017.

We would like to thank Jean- Christophe Calvet for providing the new datasets and informing us about the change.

The datasets of the German network "TERENO" have been updated.

For the stations Wildenrath, Gevenich, and Merzenhausen data is now available until the end of November 2017. Since the end of August 2017, data collected at Wildenrath station look suspicious. In particular, soil moisture and soil temperature data from one of the coupled sensors present at every depth (5, 20 and 50 cm) are missing or show an unrealistic behaviour (see Forum). For the stations Selhausen and Schoeneseiffen data is available until 12-Jun-2017.

We would like to thank Jürgen Sorg for providing the updated datasets.

The datasets of the Chilean network "LAB-net" have been updated.

For the stations of San Pedro (SPCS) and Chamonate (CCS) data is now available until 21-Nov-2017. The datasets of Oromo station (OCS) are available until 25-Sep-2017.

We want to thank Cristian Mattar Bader and Italo Giuliano Moletto Lobos for providing the updated datasets.

The datasets of all the stations of the two active clusters (out of three) of the Polish network "BIEBRZA_S-1" are updated and now available until end of October 2017.

Thank you Jan Musial for providing the new data.

The new Chinese network "HiWATER_EHWSN", operated by the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI) of the Chineses Academy of Science (CAS), is located in farmland in the middle stream of the Heihe River Basin. Soil moisture and soil temperature is measured at all 174 stations, although the observation depth (0.04 ,0.10, 0.20 and 0.40m) varies from station to station. The campaign provides measurements from April 2012 until September 2012. 

We want to thank the associated professor Rui Jan for granting access to the data and Jiang Khan for his support during the implementation process.

The Chilean network "LAB-net" was extended by two stations. They provide soil moisture measurements in one depth layer since August 2015 and are located in agricultural fields in the North of Chile. Please note that San Pedro Calibration Site (SPCS) is situated in an irrigated olive yard (see entry in ISMN Forum).

In addition, the datasets of the Oromo Calibration Site (OCS) are updated. Now, all three stations provide data until 11th of August 2017.

We would like to thank Cristian Mattar Bader and Italo Guiliano Moletto Lobos for providing the new data.

The datasets of all the stations of two clusters (out of 3) of the Polish network "BIEBRZA_S-1" are updated and now available until end of June 2017.

Thank you Jan Musial for providing the new data.

The new network "MySMNet", managed by the University Technology Malaysia, is located in Malaysia and consists of 7 stations. At each station soil moisture is measured in three different depths and at four stations also soil temperature observations are available. Observations from June 2014 until the end of 2015 are provided and will be updated in the future. 

We want to thank Kasturi Devi Kanniah for sharing and preparing the data.

The static variables files for each station that come with every download, now include insitu soil classifications, if provided by the network owners. The files were also restructured for a better readability.

Two new stations were added to the US network "iRON". Landcover at station "Sprint Valley" is dominated by pinyon juniper and sagebrush, station "Independece Pass", which is placed at 3682m altitude, is dominated by alpine willow. Both stations provide soil moisture data since June/September 2016 measured in three different depths.

Additionally, data of the stations "Glenwood Springs", "Northstar Aspen Grove", "Northstar Transition Zone" and "Smuggler Mountain" were reprocessed due to recalibration by the data provider and are now available until end of December 2016 .

We want to thank Elise Osenga for providing the reprocessed data and her support during the implementation process.

The datasets of all the stations of two clusters (out of 3) of the Polish network "BIEBRZA_S-1" are updated and now available until end of March 2017.

Thank you Jan Musial for providing the new data.

The first Canadian network "RISMA" (Real-time In-situ Soil Monitoring for Agriculture) has been added to the ISMN. "RISMA" is operated by the "Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada" and contains of three subnetworks which are located in three different provinces in Canada: Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario. The subnetwork "Saskatchewan" is located close to Strongfield and consists of four stations with soil moisture measurements in six different depths. The subnetwork "Manitoba" is situated near to Winnipeg and consists of 12 stations with soil moisture measurements in five different depths. And the subnetwork "Ontario" is located close to Ottawa and consists of seven stations with soil moisture measurements in four different depths.

Next to soil moisture also soil temperature, air temperature and precipitation is measured at all stations. Depending on the stations soil moisture measurements are available since April 2014.

We would like to thank Anna Pacheco for providing the datasets and for her support during the implementation process.

All datasets of the network "SOILSCAPE" are extended until end of March 2017 and will be updated on a regular basis.

The datasets of the Chilean network "LAB-net" have been updated until September 2016.

We want to thank Cristian Mattar Bader for providing the updated datasets.

18-20 September 2017, Vienna, Austria

The purpose of the Satellite Soil Moisture and Application Workshop is to discuss and reconcile recent methodological advances in the development, validation and application of global satellite soil moisture data. The workshop series is unique by bringing together satellite soil moisture users and developers to focus on both the derivation and exploration of soil moisture data from passive or active microwave satellite missions (SMAP, SMOS, ASCAT, AMRS-2, Sentinel-1, and other legacy missions).

The workshop will be held in conjunction with the ESA CCI Soil Moisture User Workshop which is similar in scope but particularly invites users of the CCI Soil Moisture products.

More information can be found on https://smw.geo.tuwien.ac.at/

The datasets of all stations of the Polish network "BIEBRZA_S-1" were reprocessed due to recalibration by the data provider. Now, for all layers across all sites of one cluster the same calibration coefficient is used, while different calibration coefficients are applied for each cluster. Additionally, the datasets have been updated and are now available until the end of 2016.

We want to thank Jan Musial for providing the reprocessed data.

The datasets of 20 stations of the Spanish network "REMEDHUS" are updated with one year of additional data and are now available until 2017-01-01. Please note that the soil at station K13 is irrigated.

We would like to thank José Martínez-Fernández for providing the updated datasets.

All datasets of the German network "TERENO" are extended until end of December 2016 and will be updated on a regular basis.

All datasets of the network "SOILSCAPE", except from stations node8xx, were reprocessed due to recalibration by the data provider. Additionally, the datasets have been updated until October 2016.

Furthermore, 35 new stations were added to the database. They are arranged in clusters and are located in California and Arizona.

The datasets of all stations of the German network "TERENO" were reprocessed and updated until end of September 2016. In addition, some new soil moisture and precipitation sensors were added. And, the naming of the provider quality flags changed.

From March, 10 2015 to April, 14 2015 the soil moisture and soil temperature data of the station 'Wildenrath' show odd values. For more information please have a look at the forum.

We received datasets from a project conducted in Uzbekistan during 2011, operated by Uni Würzburg. All seven stations provide soil moisture measurements, for one station also meteorological observations are available during 2010 and 2011. Although soil moisture was not observed continuously, the measurements are still a valuable contribution since no other recent observations are available in this region.

We want to thank Patrick Knöfel for providing the datasets.

The new network "BIEBRZA_S-1" operated by the Instytut Geodezji i Kartografii is located in the northeast of Poland and consists of 30 station. They are organised in three clusters of nine stations with soil moisture measurements and one weather station each. The stations are placed in a marshy surrounding. Therefore the soil moisture values are unusually high. 

We want to thank Jan Musial  for providing the data and his support during the implementation.

The precipitation data of the network DAHRA were reprocessed due to erroneous shift in the data sets in the years from 2013 to 2015. We want to thank Torbern Tagesson for recalculating and providing the updated data.

The station 'Prades-le-Lez' was updated until end of 2015.

During the year 2015 the soil moisture sensors of the stations 'Barnas', 'Berzeme', 'Prades-le-Lez' and 'Villevieille' were replaced by new sensors. This changes can  now be found in the ISMN. Additional,we were informed that the soil temperature at all stations is getting measured with the sensor PT100 from Pentronic. Therefore, the soil temperature sensor name of all stations was corrected to the right sensor.

We would like to thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing the updated datasets and the information about the changed sensors and sensor names.

The datasets of six stations ("WSMN-1" to "WSMN-6") of the network "WSMN" are updated until end of February 2016. Furthermore, a new station "WSMN-8" was added. It provides soil moisture data for one depth layer since June 2014.

In addition, the quality flags of all soil moisture datasets of station "WSMN-5" and "WSMN-6" were reprocessed because the saturation point for both stations was updated.

The datasets of all stations of the French network "SMOSMANIA" are updated with one year of additional data and are now available until end of 2015.

We would like to thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing the updated datasets.

In addition to the soil texture information from the Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD), from now on the following additional metadata are available for each ISMN station: the land cover class, extracted from the ESA CCI Landcover Classification, and the climate class, based on the Koeppen-Geiger Climate Classification.

We added these static variables to the station specific "..._static_variables.csv" file, which is attached to every zip download of ISMN data.

For the integration of the new datasets, columns were added to the file and a seperate header was added to provide more detailed information about the datasets.

We uploaded an improved version of the data portal. All known bugs were fixed and some improvements were implemented. The advanced download option was also edited to be more user friendly. There, you can run your own SQL queries on the ISMN database and download the result table.

Please leave a comment in the ISMN forum at the corresponding discussion or open a new discussion in the category Portal Issues if you discover any disfunction.

Nine new stations were added to the network 'PBO_H2O'.

All nine stations are located in the USA, 'CSCI SCGN' (csci), 'GNPS SCGN' (gnps), 'IMPS SCGN' (imps), 'LASTCHANCE' (p094), 'ROSASCYN' (p175), 'LAKHENSHAW' (p482) and 'COXCOMBMTN' (p511) in California, 'FOUNTGREEN' (p109) in Utah and 'HORSHEAVEN' (p448) in Washington.

'COXCOMBMTN' is providing soil moisture data since 2011, 'LAKHENSHAW',  'HORSHEAVEN', 'FOUNTGREEN' and 'IMPS SCGN' since 2012 and 'ROSASCYN', 'LASTCHANCE', 'CSCI SCGN' and 'GNPS SCGN' since 2013.

The datasets of the network DAHRA in Senegal were reprocessed and extended by one year until the end of 2015. We want to thank Torbern Tagesson for the effort during the process and for providing the data.

Air temperature and soil temperature of the station "Brush Creek" were reprocessed because of an inconsistency in the original datasets. In addition, all datasets of the station "Brush Creek" were updated until the end of 2015.

The quality flag 'U' was changed to 'G' in accordance with the CEOP Data Flag Description. Since the meaning of the 'U' flag 'unchecked' was not intuitively clear,  the description of the 'G' flag 'good' is more appropriate as all observations formerly flagged with 'U' went through all ISMN quality control procedures without an identification of any suspicious event.

Please adapt your routines accordingly.

Twenty-two new stations were added to the network SNOTEL. They are all located in the United States, 13 in Nevada, 3 in Wyoming, 3 in Utah, 1 in Idaho, 1 in Colorado and 1 in Arizona. Like the other stations of SNOTEL, they will be update in near real time.

There is a new category in the ISMN forum called "Announcements", where you can have a look at forthcoming events or announce one yourself. We already created entries about two very interesting workshops later this year and will continue to report about events that are forwarded to us.

Air temperature measurements were added to the stations "SAA111", "SAA112" and "SAA120", and are now available since September 2012 and June 2014, respectively.

We added a new category to the ISMN forum called "Soil Moisture Jobs". Here you can look up or post open positions in the field of soil moisture (at large in-situ, remote sensing, modelling). We will add job offerings that are forwarded to us but also invite other registered ISMN users to post their offerings. There are already a few job offers online. The forum is not meant for applications.

Six new stations were added to the network 'PBO_H2O'. All six stations are located in the USA, 'SPRECKLESS' (498), 'ANTIMONYFL' (p568), 'BUTTERBRED' (p569) and 'BLINDSPRIN' (p653) in California, 'TUBA_CITY' (p008) in Arizona, and the station 'MIDDLEGATE' (p068) is located in Nevada. 'BLINDSPRIN', 'BUTTERBRED', 'TUBA_CITY' and 'MIDDLEGATE' are providing soil moisture data since 2011, 'ANTIMONYFL' since January 2012 and 'SPRECKLESS' since October 2015.

The datasets of the new network iRON (Roaring Fork Observation Network) in Colorado, USA, are now available. The network consists of 6 stations, one station in Gleenwood Springs, Colorado, and 5 stations around Aspen, Colorado. Each station measures soil moisture in three depths. Additionally, some of the stations are measuring air temperature, soil temperature and precipitation.

We would like to thank Elise Osenga for providing the data and her support during implementation.

The datasets of the network LAB-net were reprocessed. In addition, the datasets have been extended and are now available until January 2016. The network consists of one station, the "Oromo Calibration Site", which is located in Chile.

We want to thank Cristian Mattar for providing the data and his support during the implementation.

Date:  September 21, 2016 - September 22, 2016

Location:  New York City, NY (Hotel TBD)

This workshop is a continuation of the first two soil moisture validation and application workshops held at the European Space Agency in Frascati, Italy, in 2013 and at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2014. The objective of this workshop series is to discuss and reconcile methodological advances in the validation and application of global satellite soil moisture data. The workshop is unique in that it brings together satellite soil moisture users and developers to focus on both the derivation and exploration of soil moisture data from both passive and active microwave satellite missions (SMAP, SMOS, ASCAT, AMSR-2, Sentinel-1, and other legacy missions).

The workshop is open to all. There are no fees for attendance but you must register. If you wish to make a presentation you must submit an abstract with your registration. Abstracts will be evaluated for inclusion as either oral or poster presentations.

More info and abstract submission can be found at: https://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/events/46/3rd-satellite-soil-moisture-validation-and-application-workshop-new-york-ny/

Please note that this workshop will follow a SMAP Cal/Val Workshop September 19-20, 2016 that will be held in Manhattan and is open to all that are interested in SMAP. Information on that workshop can be found at: http://smap.jpl.nasa.gov/events/45/

Following up on the outcome of the surveys directed to the ISMN users and data providers, where both sides expressed their wish of enhanced information exchange, we implemented an online forum at https://board.geo.tuwien.ac.at/ismn/. After logging in at the main site (https://ismn.geo.tuwien.ac.at/) by using your ISMN user name and password you are able to add new comments and discussions, share your experiences on datasets, follow specific threads and receive notifications if new discussions are started within certain categories. We are also happy to receive your comments and suggestions concerning our interactive map, the data download service or the forum itself.

Two new station, 'SANPETEVAL' (p110) and 'GRAPEVINE' (p553), were added to the network "PBO_H2O". 'SANPETEVAL' is located in Utah, USA, and provides soil moisture measurements since March 2013 and 'GRAPEVINE' is located in California, USA, and provides soil moisture measurements since April 2013.

In addition, the entire datasets of the network "PBO_H2O" were reprocessed due to some issues regarding soil moisture depth, air temperature and precipitation. Furthermore, snow depth, which is measured at some stations, is now available as well.

Fourteen new stations were added to the network SCAN. They are all located in the United States, 6 in Alaska, 5 in California, 2 in Missouri and 1 in Nevada. Like the other stations of SCAN, they will be update in near real time.

The stations Lindsay (581), Sheldon (750) and Table Mountain (808) switched from the network SNOTEL to SCAN. Their datasets will be updated in near real time as usual.

The datasets of the new Alaskan network BNZ-LTER (Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research) are now available. The network consists of 12 stations, all located in the boreal forest near Fairbanks, Alaska. Soil moisture measurements start around the year 2000 for each station. In addition to soil moisture measurements in several depths, observations of soil temperature, air temperature, precipitation, snow depth and snow water equivalent are available as well. The long term observations cover the period from 1988 to 2012. We would like to thank Jason Downing and Roger Ruess for granting access to the data.

The datasets of 20 stations of the Spanish network "REMEDHUS" are updated with one year of additional data and are now available until 2016-01-01. Please note that the soil at stations K04, K09 and K13 is irrigated.

We would like to thank José Martínez-Fernández for providing the updated datasets.

34 new stations are now available for the network 'PBO_H2O'. One station is located in Puerto Rico, one in Saudi Arabia, five are situated in South Africa and twenty-seven in the USA. The data for these stations will be updated in near-real time.

We would like to thank Prof. Kristine Larson for providing the datasets.

The new network "SW-WHU", coordinated by the Wuhan University in China, is now available. Currently, it consists of 7 stations in the province Hubei, 5 stations are located in Wuhan and 2 stations are close to Yichang. Each station measures soil moisture in one depth, soil temperature, precipitation and air temperature. Datasets are currently available from autumn 2014 to June 2015.

We would like to thank Chen Nengcheng and Xiang Zhang for providing the data.

One additional station is now available for the network 'RSMN'. The station 'Banloc' is located in the west of Romania, Europe, and provides observations starting in November 2014.

Furthermore, the datasets for all stations are extended until the end of October 2015 and will be updated on a regular basis.

All datasets of the network 'AMMA-CATCH' have been reprocessed by the data provider. In addition, the datasets have been extended and are now available until the 31th of December 2014.

Furthermore, one new station was added to the network. The station 'Belefoungou-Top' is located in Benin and provides soil moisture data in six different depth levels since 2006.

We would like to thank Thierry Pellarin for providing the datasets.

The datasets of the network 'SKKU' in Suwon, South Korea, are now available. The network is managed by the Sunkyunkwan University and consists of 5 stations. Soil moisture datasets are currently available for the time span between May 2014 and November 2014, in various depths.

We would like to thank Hyunglok Kim for his support during the implementation.

The new network "RSMN" is now available. Currently, it consists of 19 stations homogeneously distributed over Romania, Europe. The network is managed by the Romanian National Meteorological Administration and is part of the ASSIMO project, which aims among others, to create a framework for the validation and evaluation of actual and future satellite microwave soil moisture derived products.

Datasets are currently available for the time span between April 2014 and August 2015 and will be updated continuously.

There are now 7 additional stations available for the network COSMOS. One new station is located in Australia and Alaska, respectively, two are in South Africa, and three in the United States.

Three additional stations ("SAA120", "SOD130" and "SOD140") are now available for the Finnish network "FMI". Also, the station "MAWS" was renamed into "SODAWS". 

In addition, the datasets of all stations were updated until August 2015.

The datasets of all stations of the French network 'SMOSMANIA' were reprocessed by the data provider as an enhanced calibration method was applied to the soil moisture measurements. The datasets are also extended by one year of additional data and are now available until 2015-01-01. We would like to thank Jean-Christophe Calvet for providing the updated datasets. 

The Korean network 'HYU_CHEONGMICHEON' was dismantled thus there won't be any further datasets published. We would like to thank Prof. Minha Choi, Yoomi Hur and Seingjae Han for their contribution to the ISMN.

Both stations of the German network MOL-RAO are updated with five years of additional data and provide now data until the end of 2013. We would like to thank Udo Rummel for providing the new datasets.

The datasets of the station 1 and 2 of the network WSMN in Wales, Great Britian, are updated and now available until February 2015. Furthermore, one new station 'WSMN_7' was added to the network and is providing data since June 2014. Six soil moisture and soil temperature sensors are placed at 10 cm depth spaced a few meters apart. More details can be found here. We would like to thank Gareth Ireland for his support and for providing the data.

The datasets for the network HOBE are now available until the end of 2013. For the stations 1.01, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 2.01, 2.10, 2.11 and 3.06 additional datasets at the organic top soil layer were added. These measurements are especially calibrated for organic material and are indicated by the sensor 'Decagon 5TE_C'. The position of stations 2.06 and 2.08 changed and are therefore renamed into 2.06b and 20.8b. We would like to thank Simone Bircher for providing the data.

The datasets of 20 stations of the Spanish network "REMEDHUS" are updated and now available until 2015-01-01. Please note that station 'Guarena' (M13) has been dismantled. We would like to thank José Martínez-Fernández for providing the updated datasets.

All datasets of station 'PoriII' of the Finnish network 'GTK' have been reprocessed because some erroneous measurements were identified. We recommend to download these datasets again and apologize to all users. 

The datasets of the first Chilean network 'LAB-net' are available. Currently the network consists of one station, but new stations will be added in the future. For 'Oromo' station, which is located in the South of Chile, soil moisture measurements in two different depths are available as well as soil temperature, air temperature and precipitation. Observations started in autumn 2014 and will be updated on a weekly basis. We would like to thank Cristian Mattar for granting access to the data.

The new network ORACLE, located in France, includes 6 stations. The datasets are available till 2013 and for some stations the datasets reach back to the year 1985. ORACLE is a research observatory, to the east of Paris, for the study of the "Grand Morin" and "Petit Morin" river catchments, and particularly to develop studies on floods, low water periods, water quality and the impact of human activities on the environment. We would like to thank Delaigue Olivier for granting access to the data and his support during the implementation.

Four new stations are now available within the Austrian network "WEGENERNET". Soil moisture at these locations is derived from matric potential measurements obtained by a pF-Meter. Soil moisture values extracted from matric potentail observations are now also available for the other stations of the WEGENERNET network, starting in 2007 until the sensors were replaced by soil moisture probes in October 2013.

All datasets of the SOILSCAPE network were reprocessed by the data provider, because a new calibration curve was applied to the soil moisture measurements. Currently the spike detection and noise filtering which is usually provided by the SOILSCAPE team is undergoing some maintenance and is therefore off. As soon as the quality control procedure from the data providers is available again, a notification will be posted in this news section.

Four additional stations are now available within the WSMN Network in Wales, Great Britain. While two stations provide soil moisture and soil temperature measurements since May 2013, the same variables are available for the other two stations from September 2011 until January 2014.

Eleven stations of the network "SOILSCAPE" located in the United States were removed. All affected stations are of the 200 series ('"node2xx"). These stations are currently in a test phase and will be added again when the test phase is finished.

The new DAHRA network consists of one station in Senegal. It is managed by the Department of Geography and Geology of the University of Copenhagen. It was installed for studying ecosystem properties and validating remote sensing data products. Continuous measurements of land surface fluxes and state during the rainy season are available from 2002-07-04 to 2014-01-01. We would like to thank Torbern Tagesson and Rasmus Fensholt for sending the data and the permission to make it public.

The SWEX_Poland datasets are not being updated any longer. We thank Boguslaw Usowicz, Jerzy Ucowicz, and Wojciech Skierucha for their support to the ISMN.

Please be aware that the depths of the soil moisture measurements of all stations of the network PBO_H2O were accidentally set to 0-0.5 m and now corrected to 0-0.05 m. We apologize to all users for this inconsistency.

Four new stations are now available within the network PBO_H2O. They are located in New Mexico in the United States, Colombia in South America and the Dominican Republic. The measurements of these stations start in 2011 and will be updated in near real time. In total the network contains 109 stations. New ones will be added in the future.

All stations of the French network "SMOSMANIA" are updated with one year of additional data and provide now data until 2014-01-01. Furthermore the erroneous units of soil temperature measurements for some stations during the year 2012 are corrected.

Due to processing issues, some stations of the SMOSMANIA network may contain soil temperature values in false units for the year 2012. We are working on correcting these datasets and apologize to all users.

For the following seven stations of the italian network UMBRIA the data was reprocessed and updated: Cerbara, Ficulle, Monterchi, Petrelle, Pieve S.Stefano, S.Benedetto and Torre Olmo. The reprocessing was done by the data providers to consider the changing range of variability of the soil moisture measurements. The datasets of the stations Cerbara, Petrelle and Torre Olmo are now available until July 2014, of the other stations until November 2013. We would like to thank Luca Brocca and Luca Ciabatta for providing the updated datasets.

WEGENERNET is a high-density network for regional climate research in southeastern Austria. 12 of the over 150 climate stations in total measure soil moisture as one their components, of which 8 stations are currently included in the ISMN. Others will follow soon. For more information on the additional climate stations please have a look at http://www.wegenernet.org/. Wegenernet is coordinated by the Wegener Center of the University of Graz. In the future, the datasets will be updated in near real time. We would like to thank Gottfried Kirchengast and Jürgen Fuchsberger for preparing and sharing their data with us.

Four new stations are now available within the network ARM. They are located in Kansas and Oklahoma in the United States. The measurements of these stations start in 2011 and will be updated in near real time.

The datasets of all 5 stations of the network "TERENO" are updated, but the station Schoeneseiffen provides no soil moisture anymore. Furthermore  for all parameters of this network the "original" quality flags which are set by the provider are available for the download to complement the flags generated by the ISMN automated quality control procedures. The dataset are now available from 2013-04-01 up to 2014-10-04.

The number of stations of the network PBO_H2O which is located in the United states was increased by 8. Most of the data of the added stations are available from 2007 onwards.

There are 33 new stations available for the network SCAN which is located in the United States. The datasets of these stations start in 2004 onwards. The data will be updated in near real time.

The network HYDROL-NET_PERUGIA now consists of two stations. The station WEEF, that already existed, was renamed as WEEF 1. The new station is WEEF 2. The soil moisture sensors of these stations are very close, so the values for precipitation, soil temperature and air temperature of station WEEF 1 are also valid for station WEEF 2. Both of the new datasets contain the year 2013. We would like to thank Alessia Flammini for granting access to the data.

There are now 47 new stations available for the network SNOTEL. The datasets of the new stations are available since 2012 and will be updated in near real time as well.

There won't be any further datasets published for the network METEROBS. We would like to thank Diodato Nazzareno for providing the available data of 2011 and 2012.

There are now 24 stations instead of one available for the FMI network in Finland. Most of the datasets start in 2011 and are ongoing. The data is updated in near real time. We would like to thank Tiina Parkkinen and Kimmo Rautiainen for providing the data.

New datasets for 18 stations of the network REMEDHUS are now ready to download. The new data is for the whole year 2013. The soils of the stations H09 and M13 were flooded during a long period, so they were discarded for this year.

The PBO_H2O network consists of 98 stations located in the USA. In comparison to other networks the soil moisture data is measured using GPS reflections. The datasets, which are updated in near real time, are available from 2007 onwards. We would like to thank Kristine M. Larson for providing the data and for the support during the implementation.

There are new stations available for the network COSMOS. The data sets of these station start in February 2013 or later. There are now stations all around the world and not just in the USA. The data is in near real time.

New datasets for the two stations Tonzi Ranch and Vaira Ranch of the FLUXNET network have been added. The new data is available for 2011 and 2012.

The SOILSCAPE Network consists of 167 stations which are spread over the United States and updated on a daily basis. The work on this network is being carried out at the University of Southern California, University of Michigan and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The data sets are available from 2011-08-03 onwards but the starting date varies per station. We would like to thank Mahta Moghaddam, Agnelo Silva and Dan Clewley from University of Southern California for granting access to the data sets as well as for supporting during the implementation.

The WSMN network is located in Wales, Great Britain, and consists of two stations. The datasets are collected by the Aberystwyth University and are available from 2013-07-11 to 2014-07-01. We would like to thank Dr. George Petropoulos for granting access to the datasets.

The datasets of the station E1 of the network ARM were reprocessed. The reason was a reprocessing of the data by the provider and affects the data from 05-09-1995 to 14-10-2009.

Due to database writing issues, some data sets downloaded between September 2013 and February 2014 may contain false time stamps. To our knowledge the following stations from the SNOTEL network are affected: Culebra 2, Slumgullion, Phantom Valley, and Myrtle Creek. However, we cannot guarantee that other stations/network haven't been affected either, and therefore recommend to replace all data downloaded in this period with those currently online, also for the many good reasons below.

After we had discovered that the old data server wasn't able to catch up any longer with the large processing requirements, we decided to move the International Soil Moisture Network to a new high performance data server. At first sight not much has changed. Only if you look carefully you'll notice that the data portal now has a new URL: https://www.geo.tuwien.ac.at/insitu/data_viewer/

As a pleasant side effect, you'll notice that viewing and downloading data has become much faster.

Beside the quality flags computed during the ISMN processing, we now also pass on the quality flags provided by the contributing networks, whenever available. We think that these can provide additional valuable information when flagging for spurious observations. The "original" flags are stored in a separate column in the download file.

All ISMN observations are now being flagged according to new sophisticated quality control procedures. 27 different flags are used to indicate spurious observations and their causes. The data are being checked for geophysical plausibility using thresholds and ancillary data from in-situ measurements and models. Furthermore, spurious observations like outliers and breaks are detected using spectrum-based approaches. More information on the flag definitions can be found on http://ismn.geo.tuwien.ac.at/data-access/quality-flags/. For a detailed explanation of the various quality checks we refer to Dorigo et al.(2013). Notice that some of the flags can only be computed when the ancillary data become available. For this reason, for the most recent observations these flags can be missing and will be computed as soon as the ancillary data become available.