The Soil Moisture Sensing Technology Conference will focus on current and future research directions in soil moisture in-situ sensing technology with special emphasis on sensor reliability and measurement scale dependency. This three day conference will be held in Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii on January 3 – 7, 2012.

This conference fulfills two major objectives:

1) Discuss techniques for new generation soil moisture and thermal probes to ensure reliable data with adequate measurement volume:

• Provide background theory as needed on complex permittivity, thermal properties, and sensor / soil interaction.
• Describe effects of electrical conductivity, bulk density, clay type and amount, organic matter, water repellency, and soil structure.
• Describe measurement volume as related to sensor size, configuration and method of operation.
• Discuss techniques for on-site calibration of sensors.

2) Discuss field applications:

• What are the field-scale questions that soil sensor measurements may help answer?
• What are the requirements to obtain data across a field (power, telemetry, hardware, measure depth(s) and volume)
• How should sensors be distributed across the field to address data requirements?
• How useful are different sensors for questions of spatial variability - is support volume requirement satisfied?