AirMOSS P-Band Radar Backscatter Data for Soil Moisture Analysis

Level 1 polarimetric radar backscattering coefficient data was collected by the Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface instrument over the Walnut Gulch site in Arizona. The dataset contains calibrated and georeferenced P-band SAR products from at least biannual flight campaigns across 10 North American study sites between 2012 and 2015. NASA produced this data to retrieve root-zone soil moisture and investigate its seasonal and inter-annual relationship to carbon fluxes.

Use Cases

• Retrieving root-zone soil moisture using polarimetric radar backscattering coefficient (sigma-0) measurements.
• Analyzing seasonal and inter-annual variability in soil moisture from multilook complex radar data collected between 2012 and 2015.
• Investigating relationships between soil moisture and carbon fluxes using calibrated, georeferenced SAR products.
• Developing and validating P-band SAR models for subcanopy and subsurface sensing.

Strengths

• Data is polarimetrically calibrated and georeferenced, providing a foundation for quantitative analysis.
• Covers a multi-year time series from 2012 to 2015 with at least biannual sampling, enabling study of temporal variability.
• Collected across 10 study sites in North America, offering spatial coverage for continental-scale investigations.
• Acquired using a specialized P-band (420-440 MHz) radar system designed specifically for root-zone soil moisture measurement.

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and dataset size are not provided by any source.
• Sources conflict on the last updated date, with one listing 2015-09-01 and another listing 2026-03 13.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Data gathered via the AirMOSS P-band synthetic aperture radar instrument flown on a NASA Gulfstream-III aircraft.

Time Range

2012 to 2015

Freshness

2026 03 13 18:53:00.754607

Geography

Walnut Gulch site in Arizona, plus 9 other study sites across North America.