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Title: SOIL MOISTURE MAPPING USING ESTAR UNDER DRY CONDITIONS FROM THE SOUTHERN GREAT PLAINS EXPERIMENT (SGP99)

Author
item GUHA, A - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item JACOBS, J - UNIV. OF FLORIDA
item Jackson, Thomas
item Cosh, Michael
item Hsu, Ann
item JUDGE, J - UNIV. OF FLORIDA

Submitted to: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/15/2003
Publication Date: 11/3/2003
Citation: Guha, A., Jacobs, J.M., Jackson, T.J., Cosh, M.H., Hsu, A.Y., Judge, J. 2003. Soil moisture mapping using ESTAR under dry conditions from the Southern Great Plains Experiment (SGP99). IEEE Transactions. Geoscience and Remote Sensing. 41:2392-2397.

Interpretive Summary: The methodology for soil moisture detection from monopolarized microwave brightness temperatures was applied to low frequency data collected in the Southern Great Plains 1999 (SGP99) experiment. The algorithm was verified using ground observations of soil moisture surface temperature and vegetation biophysical characteristics. Climate conditions during the experiment resulted in moderate to very dry soil moisture conditions, which complemented previous work in this region with the instrument. drydown period. The research extends the range of testing with the electronically scanned thinned array radiometer (ESTAR) that is a prototype of future space based global mapping satellites. The development of the SGP99 ESTAR soil moisture maps complements maps retrieved from the current satellites providing an important link in spatial scaling of hydrologic state and remote sensing. These results will contribute to the potential operational implementation of this technique in hydrologic, climate and agricultural applications.

Technical Abstract: The electronically scanned thin array radiometer (ESTAR) was utilized for soil moisture mapping during the Southern Great Plains Experiment (SGP99). A retrieval algorithm was applied to obtain soil moisture from passive microwave measurements at 1.4 GHz. The algorithm was verified using ground data collected during SGP99. The results indicate a good correlation between observed and predicted soil moisture values and are consistent with results obtained from the same instrument in previous experiments. The present results demonstrate the validity of the retrieval algorithm for moderately to extremely dry soils. The ESTAR measurements along with ancillary data were used to create soil moisture maps of the entire region.