Today's data-driven agriculture demands access to high-resolution spatial and temporal soil data streams. Soil spectroscopy can help fill this data gap. Diffuse reflectance spectroscopy is becoming an indispensable tool in soil science; however, several technical challenges still limit its broader application outside of research projects.
SoilSpec4GG is a USDA-funded Food and Agriculture Cyberinformatics Tools Coordinated Innovation Network. This project will bring together soil scientists, spectroscopists, informaticians, data scientists and software engineers to overcome some of the current bottlenecks preventing wider and more efficient use of soil spectroscopy. A series of working groups will be formed to address topics including calibration transfer, model choice, outreach & demonstration, and use of spectroscopy to inform global carbon cycle modeling.