Soil Moisture Product Validation Good Practices Protocol

The role of soil moisture in the water, energy and carbon cycle of the Earth cannot be understated. Soil moisture has a major impact on agriculture, land surface hydrology, weather and climate forecasting. Soil moisture is responsible for the partitioning of solar energy into latent and sensible heat flux at the Earth's surface, which is a key element of the energy cycle. Soil moisture also partitions precipitation into soil water, ground water, and surface runoff. Thus, land surface hydrology is critically concerned with monitoring and modeling surface soil moistureas it influences infiltration and therefore land surface runoff (Figure 1). Soil moisture is a primary concern for agriculture where it is a necessary element for growth and also the mechanism for movement of nutrients towards crops, impacting yield and productivity. Weather and climate forecasting can see great advances in skill with the incorporation of soil moisture state into models.