Soil moisture is an important parameter in many hydrologic and land-atmosphere interactions.
Large-scale anomalous soil moisture conditions can lead to droughts or floods, while regional variations can enhance dryline formation, convective initiation, and precipitation recycling. Furthermore, the relative partitioning between latent and sensible heat fluxes at all spatial and temporal scales is largely controlled by variations in soil moisture conditions. Thus, understanding the spatial and temporal nature of soil moisture is vital in determining the influence that land surface processes have upon the atmosphere. The Oklahoma Mesonet, an automated network of 114 meteorological observing stations, installed soil moisture monitoring devices at 60 locations during the winter of 1996-97. In addition, soil analyses down to 75 cm were performed for each senor location to determine the characteristics of the soil in which the sensors were installed.