The Riseholme Campus of the University of Lincoln has joined the UK’s national network of monitoring stations measuring intergalactic cosmic rays to provide farmers and agri-tech researchers with near real-time data on soil moisture levels.
Grasslands at the campus have been fitted with cutting-edge meteorological and soil monitoring instruments as part of the national Cosmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS-UK) project.
Led by the UK’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the COSMOS-UK project launched in 2013 and now includes 40 sites stretching from Glensaugh in Scotland to The Lizard in Cornwall, with further installations planned.
Riseholme is the first location in Lincolnshire to be added to the national network of monitoring stations. Once calibrated, the technology will help to inform research by scientists from the University’s Lincoln Institute for Agri-food Technology (LIAT), as well researchers at other universities and research institutions.
Read more at: http://www.lincoln.ac.uk/news/2017/01/1315.asp