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Title: L-band active/passive time series measurements over a growing season usign the COMRAD ground-based SMAP

Author
item O'NEILL, P - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item KURUM, M - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item JOSEPH, A - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item FUCHS, JOHN - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item YOUNG, PETER - National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA)
item Cosh, Michael
item LANG, R - Collaborator

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/2013
Publication Date: 7/22/2013
Citation: O'Neill, P.E., Kurum, M., Joseph, A.T., Fuchs, J., Young, P., Cosh, M.H., Lang, R.H. 2013. L-band active/passive time series measurements over a growing season using the COMRAD ground-based SMAP simulator [abstract]. Proceedings of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. 2013 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Scheduled to launch in October 2014, NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will provide high-resolution global mapping of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state every 2-3 days. These new measurements of the hydrological condition of the Earth’s surface will build on data from European Space Agency's (ESA)current Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite to enable new science and applications of societal benefit that range from agriculture to human health. The SMAP instrument design incorporates an L-band radar (3 km resolution) and an L band radiometer (40 km resolution) sharing a single 6-meter rotating mesh antenna to produce an intermediate resolution (9 km) soil moisture. In the SMAP prelaunch time frame, algorithms are being developed for each of the SMAP baseline data products derived from these two instruments [1]. Refinement of these algorithms require coincident active/passive data sets at the SMAP frequency and incidence angle in time series over a long enough time period to reflect changing surface conditions (vegetation, soil moisture, etc.). As part of SMAP algorithm development activities, NASA- Goddard Space Flight Center-Combined Radar/Radiommeter truck-mounted microwave instrument system collected L-band active/passive data throughout the growing season over corn and soybean crops from June 1 through October 24, 2012, along with associated ground truth and vegetation characterization data. The resulting time series data will be used in refining the parameterizations in the SMAP baseline algorithms.