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On Thin Ice:
Expedition to a Crumbling Ice Shelf
Scientists blog from Antarctica and provide a glimpse of what it's like to do research in the field. Read their blog ...
Current Conditions
Icelights: Answers to your burning questions about ice and climate
What's hot in the news around climate and sea ice and what are scientists talking about now? Read more...
What is the Cryosphere?
When scientists talk about the cryosphere, they mean the places on Earth where water is in its solid form, frozen into ice or snow. Read more ...
NASA Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC) at NSIDC
Validation Campaigns for the AMSR-E Sensor on the NASA Aqua Satellite
A series of Soil Moisture Experiments (SMEX) were conducted from 2002 to 2005 address a broad range of science and instrument questions related to soil moisture remote sensing. The objectives of the experiments were to provide data sets for studies of hydrologic processes and land/atmosphere interactions, validate spaceborne soil moisture measurements (such as from the AMSR-E instrument), and evaluate new instrument technologies.
AMSR-E validation studies linked to SMEX are designed to evaluate the accuracy of AMSR-E soil moisture data. Specific validation objectives include: assessing and refining soil moisture algorithm performance; verifying soil moisture estimation accuracy; investigating the effects of vegetation, surface temperature, topography, and soil texture on soil moisture accuracy; and determining the regions that are particularly useful for AMSR-E soil moisture measurements.
Use the navigation bar at left to access data and information about the 2002-2005 soil moisture experiments.
AMSR-E/Aqua Data
Includes AMSR-E data, tools, FAQs, news, research and more
AMSR-E Instrument Description
Technical information about the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E)
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