AWDN technicians maintain the sensors and laboratory facilities were updated to include adequate test and calibration equipment. The network archives the data for a daily time step. Hourly data can be acquired through special requests. Currently the Nebraska Soil Moisture web page allows the user community to access graphical displays of recorded soil moisture for each depth and for each year, and graphical presentations of recorded root zone volumetric water content and modeled root zone volumetric water content for each year.
Raw data is available upon request.
This allows the state of Nebraska to conduct an early assessment of hydro-climatic conditions and estimate potential impacts on various sectors of the economy including agriculture. In other words, management of any potential emergency situation related to hydro-climatic conditions is undertaken in a timely fashion before it becomes a crisis. Today automated sensors lend themselves to real time applications and the resulting models help farmers to assess soil water conditions, crop growth, and irrigation schedules. They only need to provide some basic information to run the model and get assistance in irrigation scheduling and an assessment of soil water condition. Power companies are also utilizing soil moisture data to determine future irrigation demand and subsequent power supply.