U.S. flagAn official website of the United States government
                    Here's how you know **Official websites use .gov**
                            
                            A **.gov** website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
 **Secure .gov websites use HTTPS**
                            
                            A **lock** (                            
                              A locked padlock                                                      
                            
                            ) or **https://** means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Menu Agricultural Research Service
						
                    U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 close



Research
                Research Home
                            National Programs
                            Research Projects
                            Scientific Manuscripts
                            International Engagement
                            Scientific Software/Models
                            Databases and Datasets
                            Office of Scientific Quality Review
            Media
                News & Features
                            Multimedia
                            Briefing Room
                            Down on the Farm
                            Press Room
                            Science in Your Shopping Cart
                            Scientific Discoveries
                            Tellus
                            Under the Microscope
            About ARS
                About ARS Home
                            Staff Directory
                            Labs and Research Centers (Map)
                            Headquarter Offices
                            Organizational Chart
                            Employee Services (REE Employees Only)
                            Office of Outreach, Diversity, and Equal Opportunity
            Work With Us
                Work With Us Home
                            ARS Vacancies at USAJOBS
                            Careers at ARS Information
                            Scientific Collaborations
                            Extramural Agreements
                            1890 Faculty Research Sabbatical ProgramSearch small
                    Search
            
            ARS Home
                                About ARS
                                Contact Us




ARS Home Research Publications at this Location





- ARS National Programs
- Search for a scientific manuscript
- Search for a research project
- ARS Software
- Programs and Projects
- Collaborations
- Subjects of Investigation
- Publications

Title:   Author  item
                                            COLLIANDER, A - Jet Propulsion Laboratoryitem
                                            CHAN, S - Jet Propulsion Laboratoryitem
                                            KIM, S - Jet Propulsion Laboratoryitem
                                            DAS, N - Jet Propulsion Laboratoryitem
                                            YUEH, S - Jet Propulsion Laboratoryitem
                                            Cosh, Michaelitem
                                            BINDLISH, R - Science Systems, Incitem
                                            Jackson, Thomasitem
                                            NJOKU, E - Jet Propulsion Laboratory
  Submitted to: Remote Sensing of Environment
                                    Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
                                    Publication Acceptance Date: 2/12/2012
                                    Publication  Date: 6/1/2012
                                    Citation: Colliander, A., Chan, S., Kim, S., Das, N., Yueh, S., Cosh, M.H., Bindlish, R., Jackson, T.J., Njoku, E. 2012. Long term analysis of PALS soil moisture campaign measurements for global soil moisture algorithm development. Remote Sensing of Environment. 121:309-322.Interpretive Summary: The upcoming NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission will use both active and passive radiometers to estimate surface soil moisture for the globe.  This mission is a culmination of a series of field experiments which established the feasibility and accuracy of this combined radiometer concept.  Previous satellite missions have used either passive or active, but not both.  The Passive and Active L-Band System (PALS) is the current aircraft simulator for the SMAP mission and has been flown over a span of 10 years.  This paper provides an overview of those field experiments and summarizes the findings and points to future questions which must still be addressed by field experimentation.  These include how to estimate soil moisture over dense vegetation, and how does the system perform for lengthy time scales over the same domain.
                                Technical Abstract: An important component of satellite-based soil moisture algorithm development and validation is the comparison of coincident remote sensing and in situ observations that are typically provided by intensive field campaigns. The planned NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission has unique requirements compared to previous soil moisture satellite programs because both active and passive microwave observations are needed. The primary source of these combined observations has been an aircraft-based SMAP simulator called PALS (Passive and Active L-band System). This paper presents an overview of the field experiment data collected using PALS that spans 10 years. Data from the various campaigns were merged to form a single data set. Analyses showed that the data set contains an extensive range of soil moisture values collected under a variety of conditions and that the quality of both the PALS and ground truth data meets the needs of SMAP algorithm development and validation. The study suggests that the data set should be expanded in order to achieve globally representative land cover diversity and that more observations under dense vegetation conditions and longer time series would be desirable.


Return to top


Connect with ARS Sign up


ARS Home
                            USDA.gov
                            Plain Writing
                            Policies & Links
                            Civil Rights Statements
                            FOIA
                            Accessibility Statement
                            Privacy Policy
                            Non-Discrimination Statement
                            Quality of Information
                            USA.gov
                            WhiteHouse.gov