Search
LACADIAN_webpage_cover.PNG thumbnail

What is the Louisiana Climate & Digital Ag Network?

Louisiana Climate & Digital Ag Network, or LaCADIAN, is an emerging network of distributed automated field observatories equipped with in situ and proximal sensors to monitor soil, plant and weather conditions. This network is designed to support statewide climate-smart digital agriculture, develop modeling and predictive capabilities for agroecosystems, and enhance agricultural resilience to weather extremes. LaCADIAN nodes are designed to be strategically positioned across agriculturally and ecologically critical centers across the state, including LSU AgCenter Research Stations and the Mississippi River Alluvial Plains. The project will support data-driven approaches to managing agriculture, energy, biodiversity, soil health, and water resources in the region. Funded by USDA-NRCS, LaCADIAN envisions a smarter agricultural future through a network of tech-enabled nodes, enhancing precision and digital agriculture innovation in the state.

Try Our Interactive Data Dashboard

FOR THE LATEST TRENDS | INTERACTIVE MAP | DATA DOWNLOAD


Need More Details?

  • Real-Time Monitoring: The sensors continuously monitor local weather and soil conditions.
  • Multi-Layer Soil Profiling: Measurements at different depths give insight into root-zone moisture and temperature.
  • Integrated System: The combination of atmospheric, soil, and vegetation metrics provides a full picture of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum.
  • Remote Cloud Data Access: Low-latency near-real-time data access for timely decisions on irrigation, drought mitigation, yield prediction and supporting other emergent technologies related to precision and digital Ag.
  • High Temporal Resolution: With reading every 15 minutes, short-term weather changes and their impacts on the environment can be tracked.

  • ATMOS 41 Gen 2 measures air temperature, relative humidity, vapor pressure, barometric pressure, solar radiation, precipitation, precipitation EC, wind speed, wind gust, wind direction, lightning strike count, and distance.
  • TEROS 12 measures soil water content, electrical conductivity, and temperature.
  • TEROS 21 measures soil matric potential and temperature.
  • NDVI sensors captures red and near-infrared reflectance to calculate vegetation index.
  • IRT sensor measures land surface temperature.
  • ZL6 Advanced cloud data logger collects and transmits data every 15 min.



LaCADIAN initiative is led by the LSU Soil Hydrology and Remote Sensing (SHaRE) Lab, directed by Dr. Vinit Sehgal and his graduate research team. LSU AgCenter faculty Dr. Stacia Conger and Dr. Prashant Jha direct the irrigation management and integrated weed management aspects of the project. The affiliated graduate student researchers include Michael Nii Attoh Agyiri and Nusrat Jahan, with additional support from Frank Anyoka Adekilae and Parvin Momenian. This diverse and interdisciplinary team combines expertise in soil physics, hydrology, and digital agriculture to advance climate-smart, data-driven farming practices throughout Louisiana.

This project is funded by USDA-NRCS grant No. NR247217XXXXG001. For details, please visit our group's website HERE.

NRCS Logo - LogoDix

LaCADIAN dataset is freely available and updates multiple times a day with latest measurements. Users can use programmatic tools of choice for access to complete dataset (daily, hourly and sub-hourly), and periodic snapshots and archives by clicking HERE.

LaCADIAN is an experimental research project intended solely for academic and non-commercial use. The dataset is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial (CC BY-C 4.0) license.

Top