CosmOz - The Australian Cosmic-ray Soil Moisture Sensor Network
The Australian cosmic-ray soil moisture monitoring network was first established in 2010 to provide Australian and global researchers with spatially distributed intermediate scale soil moisture observations. A cosmic-ray sensor (CRS) provides continuous estimates of soil moisture over an area of approximately 30 hectares by measuring naturally generated fast neutrons (energy 10–1000 eV) that are produced by cosmic rays passing through the Earth’s atmosphere. The neutron intensity above the land surface is inversely correlated with soil moisture as it responds to the hydrogen contained in the soil and to a lesser degree to plant and soil carbon compounds. The cosmic-ray technique is also passive, non-contact, and is largely insensitive to bulk density, surface roughness, the physical state of water, and soil texture. The scale of CRS measurements fills the void between point scale sensor measurements and large scale satellite observations. The depth of measurements varies with the moisture content of the soil but is typically between 10-30 cm. The depth of observations is reported as ‘effective depth’. <br>
The CosmOz network is expanding as new sensors are added over time. The initial network was funded by CSIRO Land and Water but more recently TERN has funded work to maintain the network add new sensors and deliver data more efficiently. The standard CRS installation includes; a cosmic-ray neutron tube, a rain gauge (2m high), temperature and humidity sensors, and an atmospheric pressure sensor. Measures of all parameters are reported at an hourly interval. Each CRS requires an in-field calibration across the footprint of measurements to convert neutron counts to soil moisture content. The calibration includes collection of soil samples for bulk density, lattice water content and soil organic carbon.<br>
The Australia CosmOz network consists of <a href=" https://cosmoz.csiro.au/sites ">19 stations</a>. The extent of the network and available data can be seen at the CosmOz network web page: <a href=" https://cosmoz.csiro.au/ "> https://cosmoz.csiro.au </a>. The data is also accessible from the <a href=" https://landscapes-cosmoz-api.tern.org.au/rest/doc ">TERN Cosmoz REST API</a>.<br>
The calibration and correction procedures used by the network are described by <a href=" https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR015138 ">Hawdon et al. 2014 </a>.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2020-03-19
- Date (Publication)
- 2021-10-25
- Date (Revision)
- 2024-11-13
- Edition
- 1.0
Identifier
Publisher
Co-author
Author
Co-author
Co-author
- Website
- https://www.tern.org.au/
- Purpose
- The purpose of the data from the CosmOz network is to provide long-term, intermediate-scale soil moisture estimates at an hourly time-interval across different environments in Australia.
- Credit
- We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
- Credit
- This work was jointly funded by the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), an Australian Government National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) project, and the Queensland Government Research Infrastructure Co-investment Fund (RICF).
- Status
- On going
Point of contact
- Topic category
-
- Climatology, meteorology, atmosphere
- Environment
- Location
Extent
- Description
- The CosmOz network extends across Australia. See cosmoz.csiro.au for sensor locations.
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 2011-10-28
- Title
- Hawdon, A, McJannet, D, & Wallace, J 2014, Calibration and correction procedures for cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture probes located across Australia. Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, pp.5029-5043. doi:10.1002/2013wr015138
- Website
-
Hawdon, A, McJannet, D, & Wallace, J 2014, Calibration and correction procedures for cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture probes located across Australia. Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, pp.5029-5043. doi:10.1002/2013wr015138
Related documentation
- Title
- Metadata of data levels and attributes
- Website
-
Metadata of data levels and attributes
Related documentation
- Maintenance and update frequency
- continually
- GCMD Science Keywords
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- TERN Platform Vocabulary
-
- Baldry CosmOz station
- Daly CosmOz station
- Gnangara CosmOz station
- Griffith CosmOz station
- RobsonCk CosmOz station
- Temora CosmOz station
- Tullochgorum CosmOz station
- Tumbarumba CosmOz station
- WeanyCk CosmOz station
- Yanco CosmOz station
- NamadgiPark CosmOz station
- MineralBanks CosmOz station
- Hamilton CosmOz station
- Bishes CosmOz station
- Bennets CosmOz station
- Bullawarrie CosmOz station
- ScottsPeak CosmOz station
- BCS Conservatively Grazed (C3) CosmOz station
- BCS Brigalow Woodland (C1) CosmOz station
- BCS Heavily Grazed (C5) CosmOz station
- TERN Parameter Vocabulary
- QUDT Units of Measure
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
- Keywords (Discipline)
-
- cosmic-ray soil moisture
- rainfall
- neutron counts
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- File name
- 88x31.png
- File description
- CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
- File type
- png
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN. <br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
- Other constraints
- Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.
- Other constraints
- Please cite this paper if using the data: Hawdon, A, McJannet, D, & Wallace, J 2014, Calibration and correction procedures for cosmic-ray neutron soil moisture probes located across Australia. Water Resources Research, Vol. 50, pp.5029-5043. doi:10.1002/2013wr015138
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Supplemental Information
- Neutron intensity data for neutron intensity corrections are supplied by the Neutron Monitor Database (http://www01.nmdb.eu/)
Distribution Information
Distributor
Distributor
- Distribution format
-
- OnLine resource
- Cosmoz REST API
- OnLine resource
- Metadata of All CSIRO Cosmoz Sites
- OnLine resource
- Data Visualisation
- OnLine resource
- Landscapes Data Visualiser - CosmOz
- OnLine resource
- CosmOz - The Australian Cosmic-ray Soil Moisture Sensor Network
- OnLine resource
- ro-crate-metadata.json
Data quality info
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Other
- The cosmic-ray sensor is calibrated with collection of soil cores in the field. In total 72 soil cores are collected from location at different radial distances from the sensor and at different depth in the profile. Data is delivered with 5 levels of processing to maintain data integrity. These levels are: 'Raw Data' - data as it comes straight from the station, 'Level 1' - data with high and low neutron counts flagged and low battery flagged, 'Level 2' - data with corrections for atmospheric humidity, atmospheric pressure and incoming neutron intensity, 'Level 3' - calculated soil moisture content, depth of measurement and rainfall, and 'Level 4' - final high quality data including a 7-hour moving average. Refer to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/2013WR015138">Hawdon et al. 2014 </a>.
Report
Result
- Statement
- Measurement precision increases with the number of neutron counts as neutron intensity follows Poisson statistics. The longer the averaging the less the uncertainty in soil moisture observations. Modelling suggests that uncertainty is typically in the order of 0.03 m^3/m^3.
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/EPSG:4326
- Reference system type
- Geodetic Geographic 2D
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/3567cff4-4a73-439e-a1b4-d30caf3c8959
- Title
- TERN GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/3567cff4-4a73-439e-a1b4-d30caf3c8959
Point-of-truth metadata URL
- Date info (Creation)
- 2020-03-19T00:00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2024-11-13T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
- Edition
- 1
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
- Title
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
- Date (published)
- 2021
- Edition
- 1.0