SOIL MOISTURE EXPERIMENTS 2004 (SMEX 04) POLARIMETRIC SCANNING RADIOMETER, AMSR-E AND HETEROGENEOUS LANDSCAPES

Authors: Jackson, Thomas; BINDLISH, RAJAT - SSAI; Cosh, Michael; GASIEWSKI, A - NOAA; STANKOV, B - NOAA; KLEIN, M - NOAA; WEBER, B - NOAA; ZAVOROTNY, V - NOAA

Submitted to: International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/29/2005
Publication Date: 7/25/2005
Citation: Jackson, T.J., Bindlish, R., Cosh, M.H., Gasiewski, A., Stankov, B., Klein, M., Weber, B., Zavorotny, V. 2005. Soil Moisture Experiments 2004 (SMEX04) polarimetric scanning radiometer, AMSR-E and heterogeneous landscapes. In: Proceedings of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, July 25-29, 2005, Seoul, Korea. 2:1114-1117.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: An unresolved issue in global soil moisture retrieval using passive microwave sensors is the spatial integration of heterogeneous landscape features to the nominal 50 km footprint observed by most satellite systems. One of the objectives of the Soil Moisture Experiments 2004 (SMEX04) was to address some aspects of this problem, specifically variability introduced by topography and convective precipitation. Other goals included understanding the role of the land surface in the North American Monsoon System. Data were collected during the month of August 2004 at three scales; ground based point measurements, aircraft passive microwave mapping, and satellite observations using AMSR-E and other sensors. SMEX04 was conducted over two regions: Arizona - semi-arid climate with sparse vegetation and moderate topography, and Sonora (Mexico) - moderate vegetation with strong topographic gradients. The Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR/CX) was flown on a Naval Research Lab P- 3B aircraft as part of SMEX04 (11 dates of coverage over Arizona and 10 over Sonora). General meteorological conditions, the PSR/CX data sets and selected comparisons of this data to AMSR-E are presented.