SOIL MOISTURE REMOTE SENSING EXPERIMENTS - AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH SERVICE

Goals / Objectives
Soil moisture is a significant boundary condition that controls summer precipitation over the central U.S. and other large mid-latitude continental regions and essential initial information for seasonal production. Precise in site measurements of soil moisture are sparse. Remote sensing, if achievable with sufficient accuracy and reliability, would provide truly meaningful wide-area soil wetness. New concepts to achieve this goal must be developed through field experimentation.

Project Methods
Soil moisture remote sensing experiments will be conducted as part of a series of large scale investigations of land surface hydrology. The first experiments will be conducted during the summer of 2003. Ground observations of soil moisture will be collected at ARS research watershed sites in Oklahoma, Georgia, as well as other locations that will be identified. Microwave sensors will be installed on NASA aircraft. These combined data sets will be used to validate retrieval algorithms and coarse footprint satellite observations. Numerous cooperators for ARS, NASA, NOAA and universities will participate.

Progress 01/01/03 to 12/31/07

Outputs
4d Progress report. This report serves to document research conducted under a reimbursable agreement between the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Additional details of research can be found in the report for the parent project 1265-13610-026- 00D entitled, "INTEGRATING REMOTE SENSING, CLIMATE AND HYDROLOGY FOR EVALUATING WATER, ENERGY AND CARBON CYCLES." ARS is leading a study to identify alternative approaches to implementing a soil moisture mission to satisfying these science and application objectives. A multidisciplinary team of government and university researchers is evaluating the technical feasibility of these choices with the goal of identifying and recommending to NASA that one be considered for implementation. These efforts have led to the selection of the Hydros mission by NASA for satellite implementation. This project will provide a significant step in defining the direction for future U.S. soil moisture missions that will benefit agriculture and climatology.

Impacts
(N/A)

Publications

Progress 10/01/03 to 09/30/04

Outputs
4. What were the most significant accomplishments this past year? This report serves to document research conducted under a reimbursable agreement between ARS and NASA. Additional details of research can be found in the parent CRIS 1265-13610-026-00D Integrating Remote Sensing, Climate and Hydrology for Evaluating Water, Energy and Carbon Cycles. ARS is leading a study to identify alternative approaches to implementing a soil moisture mission to satisfying these science and application objectives. A multidisciplinary team of government and university researchers is evaluating the technical feasibility of these choices with the goal of identifying and recommending to NASA that one be considered for implementation. These efforts have led to the selection of the Hydros mission by NASA for satellite implementation. This project will provide a significant step in defining the direction for future U.S. soil moisture missions that will benefit agriculture and climatology.

Impacts
(N/A)

Publications