DocumentCode :
2919328
Title :
Airborne GPS bistatic radar soil moisture measurements during SMEX02
Author :
Masters, D. ; Katzberg, S. ; Axelrad, P.
Author_Institution :
Colorado Univ., Boulder, CO, USA
Volume :
2
fYear :
2003
fDate :
21-25 July 2003
Firstpage :
896
Abstract :
To further investigate the potential for remotely sensing soil moisture using the L-band GPS bistatic radar concept, a GPS bistatic radar participated for the first time in airborne measurements during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02) in Ames, Iowa. A 12 channel GPS navigation receiver was modified to perform bistatic radar measurements and mounted on the JPL PALS instrument. The reflected GPS signal-to-noise ratio measurements generated a ground track which was sensitive to the surface characteristics. Assuming surface roughness and vegetation cover to be constants over the duration of the study period, the temporal changes in the measured signals were suspected to be proportional to varying soil moisture content. The bistatic signal measurements were interpolated to a UTM grid to produce daily maps of relative change of surface soil moisture over the study region. The maps of the study region showed a transition from very dry surface soil moisture conditions to very wet conditions following precipitation events occurring in the middle of the study period. Additionally, the maps showed sensitivity to localized rainfall in areas without precipitation. The scattered signal measurements were also compared with in situ soil moisture measurements at 32 field sites and found to follow the general soil moisture trend as a function of time. These positive initial results from the first controlled experiment of GPS bistatic radar foe measuring soil moisture were encouraging. Additional analyses with the present data set and comparison with other remote sensing instruments (PALS) are planned as well as participation in future campaigns.
Keywords :
Global Positioning System; airborne radar; hydrological techniques; rain; remote sensing by radar; terrain mapping; vegetation mapping; 12 channel GPS navigation receiver; Ames; GPS signal-to-noise ratio measurements; Iowa; JPL PALS instrument; L-band GPS bistatic radar; SMEX02; Soil Moisture Experiment 2002; UTM grid; airborne GPS bistatic radar; airborne measurements; bistatic signal; ground track; in situ measurements; precipitation events; rainfall; remote sensing; scattered signal measurements; sensitivity; soil moisture measurements; surface characteristics; surface roughness; temporal changes; vegetation cover; Bistatic radar; Global Positioning System; Instruments; Moisture measurement; Rough surfaces; Soil measurements; Soil moisture; Surface roughness; Surface soil; Time measurement;
fLanguage :
English
Publisher :
ieee
Conference_Titel :
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2003. IGARSS '03. Proceedings. 2003 IEEE International
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7929-2
Type :
conf
DOI :
10.1109/IGARSS.2003.1293956
Filename :
1293956
Link To Document :
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