The UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology has established, and continues to grow, a long-term network of soil moisture monitoring sites for the United Kingdom, with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council. The network provides near-real time soil moisture data for use in a variety of applications including farming, water resources, flood forecasting and land-surface modelling. Each site is equipped with an instrument that uses cosmic-rays to sense soil moisture over an area of about 12 hectares (about 30 acres). Data from the network have the potential to transform the way that we understand and model the natural environment.
Resources are provided on this website to enable you to:
- View the live data from all COSMOS-UK sites;
- See a list of our monitoring sites;
- Read about the science underpinning COSMOS-UK;
- Access data and information products from our network;
- Learn about soil, the importance of soil moisture and the instruments used to measure it;
- View and download the video and print media produced by COSMOS-UK;
- Sign-up to receive the COSMOS-UK Monthly Summary.
This website and embedded data services are maintained on a reasonable endeavours basis. See Terms and Conditions for more information.
Accessing data
- Download near-real time data online - simply complete the online form or use the API (application programming interface).
- Download quality controlled data up to the end of 2023 from the UKCEH Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC). The data are accompanied by documentation that describes the site-specific instrumentation, data and processing including quality control.
If you have any questions, please email cosmosuk@ceh.ac.uk.