AirMOSS Radar-Derived Soil Moisture Profiles Across North America

2012 to 2015 data provides high-resolution volumetric soil moisture profiles for the root zone at ten North American sites. The dataset contains Level 2/3 estimates derived from P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) measurements collected via NASA's AirMOSS instrument on a Gulfstream-III aircraft. It captures soil moisture at multiple depths with a 90-meter spatial resolution over areas approximately 100km by 25km per site.

Use Cases

• Validating satellite-based soil moisture products (e.g., SMAP, SMOS) using high-resolution airborne radar estimates.
• Analyzing spatial gradients of soil moisture influenced by soil type, topography, and vegetation heterogeneity across 100km x 25km transects.
• Studying temporal changes in root zone storage from at least biannual flight campaigns between 2012 and 2015.
• Calibrating or improving hydrological models with subsurface moisture profiles at multiple depths.

Strengths

• Provides high spatial resolution (90-meter) soil moisture data, which is finer than typical satellite products.
• Covers ten distinct sites across North America, offering geographic diversity for analysis.
• Includes measurements at multiple depths, enabling study of the full root zone profile.

Limitations

• Temporal coverage is limited to specific campaigns from 2012-2015, not continuous monitoring.
• Conflicting 'last updated' dates exist between platforms (2015-09-29 vs. 2026-03-13), creating uncertainty about metadata maintenance.

Provenance

Source

NASA Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) instrument.

Collection Method

Airborne P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data collected from a NASA Gulfstream-III aircraft and processed to Level 2/3 soil moisture estimates.

Time Range

2012 to 2015

Freshness

2026-03-13 19:15:24.085326

Geography

Ten sites across North America.