Soil moisture and matric potential – An open field comparison ofsensor systems

Abstract

Abstract. Soil water content and matric potential are central hydrological state variables. A large variety of automated probesand sensor systems for state monitoring exists and is frequently applied. Most studies solely rely on the calibration by themanufacturers. Until now, there is no commonly agreed calibration procedure. Moreover, several opinions about the capabilitiesand reliabilities of specific sensing methods or sensor systems exist and compete. A consortium of several institutions conducted a comparison study of currently available sensor systems for soil water5content and matric potential under field conditions. All probes have been installed in 0.2 m depth below surface following best practice procedure. We present the setup and the recorded data of 58 probes of 15 different systems measuring soil moisture and further 50 probes of 14 different systems for matric potential. The measuring campaign was conducted in the growing period of 2016. The monitoring data, results from pedophysical analyses of the soil and laboratory reference measurements for calibration are published in Jackisch et al. (2018, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.892319).