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Title: Microwave Soil Moisture Retrieval Under Trees Using a Modified Tau-Omega Model

Author
item O'NEILL, P - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item LANG, R - George Washington University
item KURUM, M - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item JOSEPH, A - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item Cosh, Michael
item Jackson, Thomas

Submitted to: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/1/2010
Publication Date: 4/1/2010
Citation: O'Neill, P., Lang, R., Kurum, M., Joseph, A., Cosh, M.H., Jackson, T.J. 2010. Microwave soil moisture retrieval under trees using a modified Tau-Omega model. In: Proceedings of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings, July 25-30, 2010, Honolulu, Hawaii. III:290-293.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: During 2007-2009 field experiments have been conducted using the ComRAD microwave truck instrument system with a goal of optimizing microwave soil moisture retrieval algorithms for small to medium deciduous and coniferous trees. A joint effort of NASA / GSFC and George Washington University, ComRAD consists of a quad-polarized 1.25 GHz radar and a dual-polarized 1.4 GHz radiometer sharing the same antenna. In the current study, ComRAD microwave data and ground truth measurements of soil moisture, temperature, soil texture, and vegetation water content and geometry statistics have been used to assess whether the zero-order tau-omega model can be employed successfully to retrieve soil moisture under tree canopies using effective values for tau (the vegetation opacity) and omega (the single scattering albedo). In addition, the tau-omega model has been modified to include a first-order scattering term.