Soil moisture and matric potential - An open field comparison of sensor systems

Soil water content and matric potential are central hydrological state variables. A large variety of automated probes and sensor systems for state monitoring exists and is frequently applied. Most studies solely rely on the calibration by the manufacturers. Until now, there is no commonly agreed calibration procedure. Moreover, several believes about the capabilities and 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 moisture and matric potential under field conditions. All probes have been installed in 0.2 m depth under best practise procedure. We present the setup and the recorded data of 58 probes of 15 different systems measuring soil moisture and 50 probes of 14 different systems for matric potential, which have been used during the campaign in 2016. The data is extended by pedophysical analyses of the soil and laboratory reference measurements for calibration.