How to Analyze Soil Moisture Data

Learn everything you need to know about analyzing soil moisture data.

You’ve buried soil water content and water potential (soil suction) sensors in the ground, installed an ATMOS 41 in the field, and set up your ZL6 data logger. Your network of instruments has been collecting data for weeks or even all season. Now what? Knowing how to extrapolate meaningful inferences from your data, forming big picture conclusions about what is happening, and identifying and troubleshooting issues can sometimes be challenging.

In this article, we will step through multiple data sets to understand how soil water content, soil temperature, soil water potential, and atmospheric measurements can be used to discover the meaning behind the traces. Within this article you will learn how to identify the following events in your data:

• Behavior of soil moisture sensors in different soil types
• Infiltration
• Flooding
• Soil cracking
• Freezing
• Spatial variability
• Temperature effects
• Diurnal patterns due to hydraulic redistribution
• Broken sensors
• Installation problems

Read the full guide to analyzing soil moisture data here: https://metergroup.com/measurement-insights/how-to-analyze-soil-moisture-data/