Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #344091
Research Project: Integrating Remote Sensing, Measurements and Modeling for Multi-Scale Assessment of Water Availability, Use, and Quality in Agroecosystems

Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory

Title: Vegetation water content mapping for agricultural regions in SMAPVEX16

Author
item White, William - Alex
item Cosh, Michael
item McKee, Lynn
item BERG, A. - University Of Guelph
item MCNAIRN, H - Agriculture And Agri-Food Canada
item HORNBUCKLE, B. - Iowa State University
item COLLIANDER, A. - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
item Jackson, Thomas

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2017
Publication Date: 12/11/2017
Citation: White, W.A., Cosh, M.H., Mckee, L.G., Berg, A., Mcnairn, H., Hornbuckle, B., Colliander, A., Jackson, T.J. 2017. Vegetation water content mapping for agricultural regions in SMAPVEX16. American Geophysical Union. Abstract No. H51E-0634.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Vegetation water content impacts the ability of L-band radiometers to measure surface soil moisture. Therefore it is necessary to quantify the amount of water held in surface vegetation for an accurate soil moisture remote sensing retrieval. A methodology is presented for generating agricultural vegetation water content maps using Landsat 8 scenes for agricultural fields of Iowa and Manitoba for the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiments in 2016 (SMAPVEX16). Manitoba has a variety of row crops across the region, and the study period encompasses the time frame from emergence to reproduction, as well as a forested region. The Iowa study site is dominated by corn and soybeans, presenting an easier challenge. Ground collection of vegetation biomass and water content were also collected to provide a ground truth data source. Errors for the resulting vegetation water content maps ranged depending upon crop type, but generally were less than 15% of the total plant water content per crop type. Interpolation is done between LandSat overpasses to produce daily vegetation water content maps for the summer of 2016 at a 30 meter resolution.