Publications

Accurate climate forecasting affects our daily lives. Large-scale farmers depend on weather forecasts to decide when to plant their crops. Bad timing can impact the whole years' harvest and thus the farmers' livelihoods. Even more importantly, people who live in floodplains and hurricane zones trust their lives to accurate weather forecasts. For these reasons and more, hydrologists need up-to-date knowledge of Earth's climate systems. And one of the most important sources of data may surprise you. The amount of moisture in just the first 8 mm of topsoil affects all of Earth's climate systems. Currently, National Aeronautics and Space Administration keeps track of soil moisture levels with a satellite called Soil Moisture Active Passive. However, it only provides soil moisture data every 2–3 days. We believe that we can do better, and we believe that we can do it with preexisting satellite systems. In 2017, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched eight microsatellites, called Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CyGNSS), to predict cyclone paths. We have found that while the CyGNSS satellites are predicting cyclone paths, they can simultaneously measure changes in soil moisture around 5 times per day. Augmenting the Soil Moisture Active Passive data with CyGNSS would give us detailed prediction of weather changes in near-real time, protecting livelihoods and lives.

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