Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) on the Southern High Plains

The Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) is a nationwide soil moisture and climate system that collects data to support natural resource assessments and conservation activities.

The system is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) through the National Water and Climate Center (NWCC), in cooperation with the NRCS National Soil Survey Center. The system focuses on agricultural areas and monitors soil temperature and soil moisture content at several depths, precipitation, air temperature, wind speed and direction, and solar radiation.

The SCAN sites use a variety of methods to transmit data from the remote stations in near real time. Most of the stations use a meteor burst telemetry that is exceptionally reliable and also cost effective.

There are currently 6 SCAN stations located on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. These sites were activated as part of the SCAN system and began collecting data in February of 2005.

The use of SCAN data can facilitate global climate modelers, soil scientists, drought managers, and farmers with activities including soil surveys, water management and irrigation schedules, planting schedules, and crop production models. In addition, data collected at these sites could also be utilized by individuals modeling or conducting feasibility studies for locating wind energy or solar energy collection facilities.

The main objective for installing the Lubbock sites was to help determine the boundary between the soil moisture regimes on the Southern High Plains—the Aridic/Ustic (MLRA-77C) and the drier Ustic/Aridic (MLRA-77D). Because the Aridic/Ustic boundary can shift dramatically from year to year the stations were spaced approximately 25 miles apart and located on an east-west transect line. In order to obtain a reasonable estimate of “normal” precipitation these climate stations will be operational for a minimum of 10 years with a target of 20 years in service as the goal. Information from these sites will help determine the course of soil mapping as it continues in the Southern High Plains Soil Survey Update.

At this time data is being evaluated by the MLRA-77 Soil Survey Staff located in Lubbock, Texas. A compilation of this data with graphs will be available upon request later this year. The collection of this data is ongoing and will continue to be evaluated for years to come.

The current and historical data for each SCAN site are on the NWCC internet homepage at www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov. Soil pedon information for most sites can also be obtained from a link to the National Soil Survey Center database and contains all of the site characterization information.