SMAPVEX15: Soil Moisture and Brightness Temperature Data from Aircraft Instrument

Soil moisture and brightness temperature data collected during the Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2015 (SMAPVEX15). The data set includes measurements from the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) aircraft instrument, as well as in situ gravimetric and volumetric soil moisture samples. Data is hosted on AWS and requires an Earthdata Login account for access.

Use Cases

• Validate satellite-derived soil moisture products based on aircraft-measured brightness temperatures.
• Calibrate and improve L-band microwave retrieval algorithms based on the PALS instrument data.
• Analyze the relationship between in situ soil moisture measurements and remotely sensed brightness temperatures.

Strengths

• Data is part of a formal validation experiment (SMAPVEX15) designed for satellite calibration.
• Includes multiple measurement types: brightness temperature, derived soil moisture, and in situ samples.
• In situ sampling was performed at a high spatial resolution of approximately 1 meter apart.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data access requires a separate account registration (Earthdata Login).

Provenance

Source

NASA SMAPVEX15 Project

Collection Method

Collected via the Passive Active L-band System (PALS) aircraft instrument and in situ field sampling.

Time Range

2015

Freshness

Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Geography

null