COSMOS-UK: national soil moisture and hydrometeorology data for environmental science research

Cooper, Hollie; Bennett, Emma; Blake, J. R.; Blyth, Eleanor; Boorman, David; Cooper, Elizabeth; Evans, Jonathan; Fry, Matthew; Jenkins, Alan; Morrison, Ross; Rylett, Daniel; Stanley, Simon; Szczykulska, Magdalena; Trill, Emily; Antoniou, Vasileios; Askquith-Ellis, Anne; Ball, L. Andrew; Brooks, M. K.; Clarke, Michael A.; Cowan, Nicholas; Cumming, Alexander; Farrand, Philip; Hitt, Olivia; Lord, William D.; Scarlett, Peter; Swain, Oliver; Thornton, Jenna; Warwick, Alan; Winterbourn, Ben

doi:10.5194/essd-13-1737-2021

Cited by 34 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 54 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…By the end of February 2014, the lowest soil level holds as much water as the upper layer, and the magnitude of surface and sub-surface runoff components are more similar.One of the challenges inherent in any assessment of the simulated land surface response to precipitation has been the limited observations of components of the terrestrial water cycle at scales relevant to the model grid. The COSMOS-UK cosmic-ray soil moisture observing system(Evans et al, 2016) was first established in 2013 and has since expanded to 52 sites across the UK(Cooper et al, 2021). During winter 2013/14 an initial four sites were active across a small part of southern England (Figure1b).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A regional coupled approach to water cycle prediction during winter 2013/14 in the United Kingdom

Lewis

Dadson

2021

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A regional coupled approach to water cycle prediction is demonstrated for the 4-month period from November 2013 to February 2014. This provides the first multicomponent analysis of precipitation, soil moisture, river flow and coastal ocean simulations produced by an atmosphere-land-ocean coupled system focussed on the United Kingdom (UK), running with horizontal grid spacing of around 1.5 km across all components. The Unified Model atmosphere component, in which convection is explicitly simulated, reproduces the observed UK rainfall accumulation (r 2 of 0.95 for water day accumulation), but there is a notable bias in its spatial distribution-too dry over western upland areas and too wet further east. The JULES land surface model soil moisture state is shown to be in broad agreement with a limited number of cosmic-ray neutron probe observations. A comparison of observed and simulated river flow shows

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A regional coupled approach to water cycle prediction during winter 2013/14 in the United Kingdom

Lewis

Dadson

2021

Hydrological Processes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…6 Part of the COSMOS-UK network operated by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. Further information about the sites and COSMOS-UK is presented in Cooper et al (2021). 7 Part of the German Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) network (https://www.tereno.net/, last access: 2 March 2022).…”

Section: Overview Of the Cosmos-europe Sitesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As suggested by Cooper et al (2021), we use normalized quantiles to better indicate extreme soil moisture situations. First, the soil moisture values are normalized relative to the minimal and maximal observed soil moisture of the considered time series; i.e., the soil moisture values (θ ) are scaled between 0 and 1 (p):…”

Section: Normalized Quantiles Of Soil Moisturementioning

confidence: 99%

COSMOS-Europe: a European network of cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture sensors

Bogena¹,

Schrön

Jakobi³

et al. 2022

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Climate change increases the occurrence and severity of droughts due to increasing temperatures, altered circulation patterns, and reduced snow occurrence. While Europe has suffered from drought events in the last decade unlike ever seen since the beginning of weather recordings, harmonized long-term datasets across the continent are needed to monitor change and support predictions. Here we present soil moisture data from 66 cosmic-ray neutron sensors (CRNSs) in Europe (COSMOS-Europe for short) covering recent drought events. The CRNS sites are distributed across Europe and cover all major land use types and climate zones in Europe. The raw neutron count data from the CRNS stations were provided by 24 research institutions and processed using state-of-the-art methods. The harmonized processing included correction of the raw neutron counts and a harmonized methodology for the conversion into soil moisture based on available in situ information. In addition, the uncertainty estimate is provided with the dataset, information that is particularly useful for remote sensing and modeling applications. This paper presents the current spatiotemporal coverage of CRNS stations in Europe and describes the protocols for data processing from raw measurements to consistent soil moisture products. The data of the presented COSMOS-Europe network open up a manifold of potential applications for environmental research, such as remote sensing data validation, trend analysis, or model assimilation. The dataset could be of particular importance for the analysis of extreme climatic events at the continental scale. Due its timely relevance in the scope of climate change in the recent years, we demonstrate this potential application with a brief analysis on the spatiotemporal soil moisture variability. The dataset, entitled “Dataset of COSMOS-Europe: A European network of Cosmic-Ray Neutron Soil Moisture Sensors”, is shared via Forschungszentrum Jülich: https://doi.org/10.34731/x9s3-kr48 (Bogena and Ney, 2021).

show abstract

“…Besides being used for studies at field scale, sometimes, even at this level of examination, it can not reveal the intrinsic soil variability at upper levels of investigation. More recently Rev Bras Cienc Solo 2021;45:e0210089 (ten years from now), some studies are using Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) technology and monitoring networks for adequate characterization of landscape average soil water content (SWC) (Franz et al, 2020;Dimitrova-Petrova et al, 2020;Cooper et al, 2021). From this point of view, it can be considered a complementary technique or even represent an extension, to a broad scale of investigation, of the analysis obtained using neutron gauges.…”

Section: Soil Neutron Gauge Technique and Usagementioning

confidence: 99%

Use of nuclear techniques in soil science: A literature review of the Brazilian contribution

Pires¹,

Cássaro²,

Correchel³

2021

Revista Brasileira De Ciência Do Solo

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This review presents the basic research and some applications of the gamma-ray attenuation, neutron gauges, and 137 Cs fallout techniques for studying soil physical processes and properties. The selected studies aimed to give the readers a general idea of the use of these nuclear techniques carried out by Brazilian researchers in the past decades. It is expected to assist future researchers by identifying knowledge gaps and opportunities for applying the methods presented here. Around 100 studies were selected for this review. The papers dealing with gamma-ray attenuation are mostly related to the analysis of soil radiation interactions, the measurement of basic soil physical properties, the evaluation of hydraulic conductivity, water retention curve, and soil mechanical analysis. Neutron gauge applications are related to monitoring the water distribution and balance at the field scale, procedures for calibrating the existing gauge for the Brazilian soils, and analyzing the spatial and temporal variability of the soil water content. The 137 Cs methodology involves studies about the erosion and sediment deposition in small watersheds and riparian zones, the spatial variability of 137 Cs inventories at reference sites, and the measurement of sediment spatial distributions. Future studies with the gamma-ray attenuation methodology should focus on a better comprehension of the photon interaction with the soil and a correct selection of photon energies to investigate contrasting soils. This is mandatory for adopting it as a reliable tool for soil characterization. This review also revealed that the challenges for the future use of the 137 Cs fallout technique involve the continuous decrease of the 137 Cs activity worldwide, including in Brazil. Advances in detection systems (gamma spectrometers) will be required to overcome this issue. Future studies should focus on the use of correction factors related to the enrichment of fine particles during the transport of sediments to improve the estimates obtained through the conversion models. The use of neutron gauges to detect soil water content at the field scale depends on the adoption of reliable calibration curves. Then, comprehending how soil properties alter this curve and how it affects the water balance is a study of great interest. Motivated by strict regulations on the use of radioactive materials, the adoption of gauges with less activity is becoming a new goal. Thus, the development of more effective systems of neutron detection is crucial.

show abstract

COSMOS-UK: national soil moisture and hydrometeorology data for environmental science research

Cited by 34 publications

References 54 publications

A regional coupled approach to water cycle prediction during winter 2013/14 in the United Kingdom

A regional coupled approach to water cycle prediction during winter 2013/14 in the United Kingdom

COSMOS-Europe: a European network of cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture sensors

Use of nuclear techniques in soil science: A literature review of the Brazilian contribution

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About