Project Number: 1265-13610-027-59
Project Type: Reimbursable

Start Date: Nov 01, 2006
End Date: Oct 30, 2009

Objective:
This research will seek innovative ways of combining information contained in remotely-sensed estimates of surface radiometric temperature and surface soil moisture in order to improve our ability to operationally monitor root-zone soil moisture within agricultural regions of the United States.

Approach:
For local-scale work, observations will be taken from data collected at the USDA-Agricultural Research Services (ARS) Optimizing Production Inputs for Economic and Environmental Enhancement (OPE3) site in Beltsville, Maryland. Once an approach has been developed and validated at the patch-scale OPE3 site it will be scaled up to a regional site in the U.S. Midwest. This aspect of the study will leverage off data collected during large-scale USDA/NASA soil moisture experiment (SMEX) campaigns conducted in central Iowa (in 2002 and planned for summer 2005), central Oklahoma (in 1997, 1999, and 2003), and the 2002 Soil Moisture Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (SMACEX - run concurrently with SMEX02 in Central Iowa).