Towards a high-density soil moisture network for the validation of SMAP in Petzenkirchen, Austria

This paper describes the design and characteristics of a new in situ soil moisture network in Austria, developed for the validation of spaceborne and modeled soil moisture products. The carefully chosen design of the network enables upscaling of the point measurements to the scale of a satellite footprint. As a first assessment soil moisture time series from an existing station are compared to both ASCAT and GLDAS surface soil moisture data. Results of this comparison show that both modeled and remotely sensed soil moisture corresponds with the in situ measurements. However, the overall higher soil moisture values for the in situ station, which are represented in the bias, emphasize the need for a carefully designed and calibrated soil moisture network.