The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology is establishing a long-term network of soil moisture monitoring stations for the United Kingdom, with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council. The network will provide near-real time soil moisture data for use in a variety of applications including farming, water resources, flood forecasting and land-surface modelling. Each station is equipped with an instrument that uses cosmic-rays to sense soil moisture over an area of almost 40 hectares (about 100 acres). Data from the network have the potential to transform the way that we understand and model the natural environment.
