NASA SMAPVEX12 Project: Soil Moisture and Vegetation Data from 2012 Field Campaign

SMAPVEX12 field data includes in situ soil moisture, soil texture, vegetation, and surface roughness measurements from agricultural and forest sites. Satellite-derived land cover classification and aircraft-based microwave backscatter and brightness temperature data were also collected. The experiment was conducted in the summer of 2012 to support validation for the Soil Moisture Active Passive mission.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite-derived soil moisture products based on in situ soil moisture core samples.
• Analyze the relationship between vegetation water content and microwave brightness temperature based on the VWC maps and PALS instrument data.
• Classify land use and assess its impact on soil moisture readings based on the 20-meter resolution land cover classification.
• Model surface roughness effects on radar backscatter based on in situ surface roughness measurements from agricultural and forest sites.
• Correlate soil texture with moisture retention based on in situ soil texture classification data.

Strengths

• Data integrates multiple measurement types: in situ cores, aircraft instruments, and satellite imagery.
• Covers distinct land cover types with separate data subsets for agricultural and forest sites.
• Land cover classification provides 20-meter resolution information derived from multiple satellite platforms.
• License is permissive (CC-BY-4.0), allowing for broad reuse and redistribution.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2012 (SMAPVEX12).

Collection Method

Collected via field coring devices, field surveys, aircraft instruments (PALS, UAVSAR), and satellite imagery (RADARSAT-2, SPOT-4, DMCii).

Time Range

Summer of 2012.

Freshness

Data is from a 2012 field campaign; last update status is unknown.

Geography

Specific agricultural and forest sites within the SMAPVEX12 study area (location not specified in input).