Abstract
NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission was launched in January 2015 carrying two instruments on-board: an L-band radar and an L-band radiometer. This satellite will soon provide global measurements of surface soil moisture as well as of freeze/thaw state at three different spatial resolutions: 36 km (radiometer only product, higher soil moisture accuracy but coarser resolution), 3 km (radar only product, less accurate soil moisture but higher resolution), and 9 km (combined radar-radiometer product). In this study, the early SMAP soil moisture products at those different spatial resolutions are validated against area-averaged soil moisture measurements from cosmic ray probes (CRP) from the Australian CRP network (known as CosmOz, cosmoz.csiro.au). The main focus area will be a semi-arid grassland in the region of Yanco (New South Wales, Australia) which is one of the core SMAP validation sites worldwide, and is supported by in-situ point observations from several OzNet soil moisture monitoring stations (www.oznet.org.au) as well as one CRP system. With this set-up, the spatial relationship of the soil moisture as observed by the CRP with the surrounding environment can be captured and provides an insight into the spatial representativeness of the CRP measurements themselves. The comparison is extended to different CosmOz systems across Australia to assess the performance of early SMAP soil moisture products under varying land cover, soil type and climate conditions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium |
| Subtitle of host publication | The Art and Science of Water |
| Place of Publication | North Melbourne VIC Australia |
| Publisher | Engineers Australia |
| Pages | 567-572 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781922107497 |
| Publication status | Published - 2015 |
| Event | Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 2015 - Grand Chancellor, Hobart, Australia Duration: 7 Dec 2015 → 10 Dec 2015 Conference number: 36th https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/portal/event/36th-hydrology-and-water-resources-symposium-hwrs-2015 |
Conference
| Conference | Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 2015 |
|---|---|
| Abbreviated title | HWRS 2015 |
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Hobart |
| Period | 7/12/15 → 10/12/15 |
| Other | 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium (HWRS 2015) |
| Internet address |