Project Number: 5342-12660-004-01
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Dec 30, 2003
End Date: Dec 29, 2008

Objective:
To develop and validate a combined remote sensing and radiative transfer model for monitoring water and carbon balance at the local and regional scale. To investigate the new technologies of radar and lidar for monitoring soil moisture. To utilize this information to better understand the daily, seasonal and inter-annual changes in natural land surfaces.

Approach:
We propose to use a radar backscatter transfer model with radar imagery obtained from satellite-based sensors to determine surface soil moisture. This information will be combined with a soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model to determine soil moisture profile. An existing database of spectral images and newly-acquired images from sites in Arizona, Georgia and Oklahoma will be used to validate the approach. Documents SCA with U. of Arizona. Formerly 5342-12660-003-01S. July 2007.