University of FloridaSolutions for Your Life

Download PDF 
Publication #CIR1514

Field Observations During the Fifth Microwave Water and Energy Balance Experiment: from March 9 through May 26, 2006 1

Joaquin Casanova, Fei Yan, Mi-young Jang, Juan Fernandez, Jasmeet Judge, Clint Slatton, Kai-Jen Calvin Tien, Tzu-yun Lin, Orlando Lanni, and Larry Miller2

Abstract - Circular 1514

Full text of this document is available at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/AE/AE40700.pdf

For accurate prediction of weather and near-term climate, root-zone soil moisture is one of the most crucial components driving the surface hydrological processes. Soil moisture in the top meter is also very important because it governs moisture and energy fluxes at the land-atmosphere interface and it plays a significant role in partitioning of the precipitation into runoff and infiltration.

Energy and moisture fluxes at the land surface can be estimated by Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere-Transfer (SVAT) models. These models are typically used in conjunction with climate prediction models and hydrological models. Even though the biophysics of moisture and energy transport is well-captured in most current SVAT models, the computational errors accumulate over time and the model estimates of soil moisture diverge from reality. One promising way to significantly improve model estimates of soil moisture is by assimilating remotely sensed data that is sensitive to soil moisture, for example microwave brightness temperatures, and updating the model state variables.

The microwave brightness at low frequencies (< 10 GHz) is very sensitive to soil moisture in the top few centimeters in most vegetated surfaces. Many studies have been conducted in agricultural areas such as bare soil, grass, soybean, wheat, pasture, and corn to understand the relationship between soil moisture and microwave remote sensing. Most of these experiments conducted in agricultural regions have been short-term experiments that captured only a part of growing seasons. It is important to know how microwave brightness signature varies with soil moisture, evapotranspiration (ET), and biomass in a dynamic agricultural canopy with a significant biomass (4-6 kgm2) throughout the growing season.

The goal of MicroWEX-5 was to understand the land-atmosphere interactions during the growing season of corn, and their effect on observed microwave brightness signatures at 6.7 GHz and 1.4 GHz, matching that of the satellite based microwave radiometers, AMSR, and the SMOS mission, respectively. Specific objectives of MicroWEX-5 are:

1.To collect passive microwave and other ancillary data to develop and calibrate a dynamic microwave brightness model for corn.

2.To collect energy and moisture flux data at land surface and in soil to develop and calibrate a dynamic SVAT model for corn.

3.To evaluate feasibility of soil moisture retrievals using passive microwave data at 1.4 and 6.7 GHz for the growing corn canopy.

Related publications can be found on the Microwave Water and Energy Balance Experiments topic page:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/TOPIC_Microwave_Water_and_Energy_Balance_Experiments

Footnotes

1.

This document is Circular 1514, one of a series of the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. First published May 2007. Reviewed July 2010. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu for more publications.

This research was supported by funding obtained from the NASA-NIP Grant #00050655 and NSF Earth Science Directorate (EAR-0337277).

2.

Joaquin Casanova, Fei Yan, Mi-young Jang, and Juan Fernandez are graduate research assistants at the University of Florida (UF); Jasmeet Judge is an Assistant Professor and Director of Center for Remote Sensing of UF (email: jasmeet@ufl.edu ); Clint Slatton is an Assistant Professor of UF; Kai-Jen Tien, and Tzu-Yun Lin are graduate research assistants at UF; and Orlando Lanni and Larry Miller are Engineers of UF. All authors except Juan Fernandez and Clint Slatton affiliated with the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Juan Fernandez and Clint Slatton are with Geosensing Systems Engineering, Department of Civil & Coastal Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.