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Earth Observing Laboratory
Field Data Archive

SMEX02: Soil Moisture Experiments in 2002

Summary

Soil moisture is the most significant boundary condition that controls summer precipitation over the central US and other large mid-latitude continental regions, and essential initial information for seasonal predictions. A common goal of a wide range of agencies and scientists is the development of a global soil moisture observing system. Providing a global soil moisture product for research and application remains a significant challenge. Precise in-situ measurements of soil moisture and sparse and each value is only representative of a small area. Remote sensing, if achievable with sufficient accuracy and reliability, would provide truly meaningful wide-area soil wetness or soil moisture data for hyrdrological studies over large continental regions.

Objectives:

The main elements of the experiment are to understand land-atmosphere interactions, validation of AMSR brightness temperature and soil moisture retrievals, extention of instrument observations and algorithms to more challenging vegetation conditions, and the evaluation of new instrument technologies for soil moisture remote sensing.

Data access

Datasets from this project

Additional information

GCMD Name S - U > SMEX02 > Soil Moisture Experiments in 2002 > fdd410e8-52f7-4b87-b739-425c6e5fd6d6
Related links

Temporal coverage

Begin Date 2002-06-01 00:00:00
End Date 2002-07-31 23:59:59

Spatial coverage


Map data from IBCSO, IBCAO, and Global Topography.

Maximum (North) Latitude: 44.00, Minimum (South) Latitude: 34.50
Minimum (West) Longitude: -99.00, Maximum (East) Longitude: -90.00

NSF

This material is based upon work supported by the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, a major facility sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation and managed by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. National Science Foundation.