POST DOC: Sensing soil moisture collaboration.

This is proposed as a Post-Doc project. This post-doc project will continue the technology development of a novel, low-cost system that determines crop evapotranspiration (ETc) from its canopy temperature which I developed during my PhD. (The PhD was completed and examined in 2021). The so-called Canopy Temperature EvapoTranspiration (CTET) system was demonstrated to be accurate against precision, high-cost, micro-meteorological instrumentation in irrigated cotton fields near Wee Waa, NSW, in full-plant, single-skip and bare earth scenarios during the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons. CTET repeatedly solves a complex mathematical model that uses canopy surface temperature and other meteorological inputs to determine the rate of evapotranspiration (ETc). It is significant that all data for CTET is measured at the field and does not rely on any off-site data sources. A CTET system can be used to give an indication of **how much** irrigation needs to be applied to restore soil moisture to field capacity based on accumulated ETc. (This contrasts with Canopy Temperature Stress systems which uses canopy surface temperature to determine crop stress and so indicate **when** to irrigate.) A remarkable feature of CTET is that it remains effective and accurate even if exposed soil is within its field of view; indeed, evaporation from fallow fields can be measured using CTET. It is proposed that this post-doc will further test and develop the CTET system to -        Reduce the cost of the device (a target of sub-$500 is in mind); -        Evaluate its effectiveness over a wider variety of crops as well as cotton; -        Get the device to work alongside or within CTS systems. The aim of this technology will be to provide growers a low-cost, low-maintenance device suitable for in-field deployment that can give high quality estimates of ETc without relying on third-party data sources, satellite data, or expensive automated weather stations.