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Accurate soil moisture monitoring is essential for protecting crops from drought and flooding, especially as Thailand’s climate becomes more unpredictable. In this study, we assessed soil moisture on sugarcane and rice farms surrounding Krasaew Dam, Suphan Buri, by collecting in situ measurements and analyzing satellite data from NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. We aimed to 1) compare soil moisture measured in the field using the GLOBE method with satellite data from NASA’s SMAP, 2) find out how soil moisture is different between sugarcane fields on higher ground and rice paddies in low areas, and 3) use simple statistics and graphs to find new patterns in the satellite data that can help farmers. Our results showed that field-measured surface soil moisture averaged 0.190 ± 0.009 m³/m³ in sugarcane fields and 0.477 ± 0.008 m³/m³ in rice fields. Corresponding SMAP satellite data indicated lower mean values due to wider spatial averaging: surface soil moisture was 0.149 ± 0.073 m³/m³ for sugarcane and 0.183 ± 0.086 m³/m³ for rice, while root zone moisture was 0.168 ± 0.048 m³/m³ and 0.214 ± 0.047 m³/m³ for sugarcane and rice, respectively. Statistical tests confirmed that rice fields remained much wetter than sugarcane fields in both field and satellite data. These findings show a strong positive correspondence between field and SMAP satellite soil moisture measurements. SMAP data also captured clear seasonal patterns, revealing dry periods from March to April and wetter soils from September to October. This project demonstrates that SMAP is a reliable, climate-adaptive tool for monitoring soil moisture in Thailand, helping farmers and decision-makers respond to environmental changes. Through our work, we developed expertise in research, statistical analysis, and satellite data, earning recognition as student researchers, satellite data users, data scientists, and earth system scientists.