EGU23-4973
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4973
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

The International Soil Moisture Network - a global interoperable data center for in situ soil moisture observations

Fay Böhmer1, Tunde Olarinoye2, Wolfgang Korres3, Kasjen Kramer4, Stephan Dietrich2, Matthias Zink2, Irene Himmelbauer5, Lukas Schremmer5, Ivana Petrakovic5, Daniel Aberer5, Roberto Sabia6, Raffaele Crapolicchio7, Philippe Goryl6, Klaus Scipal6, and Wouter Dorigo5
Fay Böhmer et al.
  • 1Department M4 Geodata Center, WasserBLIcK, GRDC, Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), Koblenz, Germany
  • 2International Center for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC), Koblenz, Germany
  • 3Department M5 Geodesy and Remote Sensing, Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), Koblenz, Germany
  • 4Department Z2 Information Technology and Information Management, Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG), Koblenz, Germany
  • 5Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Climate and Environmental Remote Sensing Research Group, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
  • 6Telespazio UK for European Space Agency (ESA) ESA-ESRIN, Frascati, Italy
  • 7Serco Italia S.p.A. for European Space Agency (ESA) ESA-ESRIN, Frascati, Italy

Soil moisture is recognized as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV), because it is crucial to assess water availability for plants and hence food production. Having long time series of freely available and interoperable soil moisture data with global coverage enables scientists, farmers and decision makers to detect trends, assess the impacts of climate change and develop adaptation strategies.

The collection, harmonization and archiving of in situ soil moisture data was the motivation to establish the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) at the Vienna University of Technology in 2009 as a community effort. Based on several project funding periods by the European Space Agency (ESA), the ISMN became an essential means for validating and improving global land surface satellite products, climate and hydrological models.

Permanent funding for the ISMN operations was secured through the German Government (Ministry of Digital and Transport) and therefore the ISMN has successfully migrated at the end of 2022 to its new host the International Centre for Water Resources and Global Change (ICWRGC) and the German Federal Institute of Hydrology (BfG). Furthermore, the ISMN was recognized by WMO in their latest State of Global Water Resources report.

To improve the data service delivery, ISMN users can now benefit from a newly developed dataviewer which features functionalities such as data archives and advanced filter options (e.g. for climate and landcover types, for data quality) developed in synergies with the ESA project Fiducial Reference Measurements for Soil Moisture (FRM4SM). This presentation aims at showcasing these latest upgrades as well as new network contributions to the ISMN.

How to cite: Böhmer, F., Olarinoye, T., Korres, W., Kramer, K., Dietrich, S., Zink, M., Himmelbauer, I., Schremmer, L., Petrakovic, I., Aberer, D., Sabia, R., Crapolicchio, R., Goryl, P., Scipal, K., and Dorigo, W.: The International Soil Moisture Network - a global interoperable data center for in situ soil moisture observations, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-4973, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-4973, 2023.