On October 25, a significant development was announced by the Qinghai Province Meteorological Research Institute: the completion of the first multi-scale soil moisture remote sensing verification facility in the province, located in Zeku County. This initiative was accomplished in collaboration with the Zeku County Meteorological Bureau.

According to the information provided, the newly established facility includes 18 large-grid soil moisture monitoring stations, situated at altitudes ranging from 3,580 to 3,750 meters in Huangnan Prefecture. The grass in the area exhibits robust growth, with root depths reaching between 10 to 30 centimeters. The monitoring devices are installed at various depths across five levels and use a spatial resolution of 7 kilometers by 7 kilometers. This setup complements previously established large (7 km x 7 km), medium (3 km x 3 km), and small (1 km x 1 km) grid soil moisture observation points in Henan County, creating a comprehensive nested observation network.

Since 2020, the project development team has successfully established a total of 66 observation stations across Henan and Zeku Counties, implementing large, medium, and small grid configurations. This includes 49 large-grid stations, 9 medium-grid stations, and 8 small-grid stations, effectively fulfilling the verification requirements for satellite data of varying resolutions.

A representative from the Qinghai Province Meteorological Research Institute shared insights into the importance of this project. With all monitoring stations at elevations of 3,500 to 3,800 meters, and probe installation depths ranging from 0 to 80 centimeters, the facility is poised to enhance remote sensing precision. Data collected will have a frequency of every five minutes, providing high temporal and spatial resolution. This valuable data will facilitate advanced research into soil moisture inversion across different scales, thereby improving soil moisture remote sensing capabilities and bolstering disaster prevention and mitigation efforts in Qinghai Province.