New Soil-Water Reflectometers Offer Additional Measurements

The CS650, CS655, and CWS655, our newest soil-water reflectometers, feature many improvements over their predecessors. These improvements include the ability to measure bulk electrical conductivity (EC) and soil temperature in addition to soil-water content.

Innovative techniques allow the new sensors to make accurate water-content measurements for a wider EC range (up to 3.7 dS/m) without performing a soil-specific calibration. All of the models output an SDI-12 signal that most of our dataloggers can measure.

Common applications include irrigation scheduling, soil-water transport and flow studies, soil-water model validation, and soil-water balance analyses. These reflectometers can also be used to compare the effects of varying soil conditions on a plant’s health.

The CS650 and CS655 differ in their rod lengths—the CS650 has 30-cm rods, and the CS655 has 15-cm rods. The CWS655 is a wireless version of the CS655. (See the Wireless Sensor Networks article for more information.)