Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory
Project Number: 8042-13610-030-057-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2022
End Date: Aug 31, 2025
Objective:
Northern parts of the Contiguous United States are subject to extended cold periods during which soils may freeze. Soil freezing impacts the water and carbon cycle. Persistent wetness that results in cropland not being planted (i.e., Midwest 2019) could be related to the antecedent soil freeze-thaw conditions. Radar is still an underutilized and under-researched technology for monitoring soils, and further research is needed to assess its ability to identify soil freeze-thaw state over agricultural lands. ARS scientists will work with the University of New Hampshire to conduct research on freeze-thaw over agricultural lands using moderate resolution radar data. The primary objective of this work is to assess radar's ability in accurately mapping soil freeze-thaw states over agricultural land.
Approach:
The cooperative work proposed here will assess the accuracy of detecting soil freeze-thaw state with radar, using in situ and other ancillary data. A mainstream approach, such as time series analysis or band ratios, will be applied to determine the soil freeze-thaw state. ARS will direct the research, lead the investigation and analysis of the results. Cooperator will conduct the research.
