Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Great Plains Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The USGS Water Mission Area (WMA) Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS), is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research and development in the field of cosmic ray neutron sensing (CRNS) technology for soil water content (SWC) and snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements. The USGS has strong interest in upgrading its hydrological monitoring infrastructure to include CRNS detectors using stationary networks and synoptic surveys. Current research and development through NGWOS (1) evaluating stationary CRNS at three innovations testbeds located in Pennsylvania, California, and Colorado, (2) deploying a dense network of CRNS along a tributary to the upper Colorado, and (3) developing experiments using portable CRNS surveys. However, there is a general lack in consistency and transparency in data processing of both stationary and portable CRNS data. The current USGS workflow is primarily being pushed through the equipment vendor and research staff would prefer a more hands-on and open approach. Therefore, a functional, standardized CRNS processing workflow would be beneficial to the WMA and the water monitoring community as a whole.