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Soil Moisture Experiment 2005 and Polarimetry Land Experiment (SMEX05/POLEX) occurred in Ames, Iowa 13 June - 4 July 2005. The experiments were intended to address algorithm development and validation related to all of the current and scheduled soil moisture satellite systems. Specific objectives include:
- Exploration of unique polarimetric information from satellites such as Windsat and CMIS for soil moisture with supporting aircraft instrumentation
- Diurnal effects associated with soil, vegetation and atmosphere at the 6 am/6 pm observing times of Hydros, SMOS, CMIS, and Windsat
- Enhancement of Aqua AMSR-E soil moisture validation
- Statistics and mitigation of RFI for CMIS risk reduction
Of these objectives, polarimetric microwave studies was the primary driver for experiment design. SMEX05/POLEX is the first campaign designed to study the unique and unexplored information that can be extracted for land applications using fully polarimetric observations. The Airborne Polarimetric Microwave Imaging Radiometer (APMIR), an aircraft simulator of WindSat and CMIS, will be available for SMEX05/POLEX that will facilitate replicate observations of a range of landscape features. In addition, with APMIR sub-band and emitter database, collected regional RFI statistics and evaluate the sensor capability in terms of RFI mitigation and its benefit in improving soil moisture retrieval performance. Many satellites (WindSat, CMIS, SMOS and Hydros) will share the same diurnal observation characteristics (6 am/ 6 pm). Efforts in SMEX05 to focus on this time frame will offer the opportunity to understand phenomena that may be specific to these observing times. Of particular interest is the effect of dew on the microwave brightness temperature (Jackson and Moy 1999). If the presence of dew has a significant impact on the brightness temperature it will be necessary to develop methods to identify this condition and possible correct for the dew effects.
All ground based and aircraft observations also support the soil moisture algorithm validation of Aqua AMSR-E. WindSat will transition to CMIS on the NPOESS operational platforms and AMSR to the Japanese GCOM satellites. All efforts in SMEX05/POLEX will contribute to these programs.
Data are in the process of be organized and will be distributed via this site. If you have questions, please contact NSIDC User Services.
SMEX05-POLEX Experiment Related Links
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