SMEX02 QuikSCAT Radar Backscatter Data for Iowa Soil Moisture

SMEX02 QuikSCAT/SeaWinds Backscatter Data contains measurements collected over Iowa, USA, during June and August of 2002. The dataset was produced by the NSIDCV0 organization for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002. It provides radar backscatter observations intended for soil moisture and land surface studies.

Use Cases

• Calibrating and validating soil moisture retrieval algorithms using radar backscatter coefficients.
• Analyzing temporal changes in land surface conditions over a two-month agricultural growing season.
• Studying the relationship between radar backscatter and soil properties in a midwestern US context.

Strengths

• Data is focused on a well-defined field campaign (SMEX02) with a specific time range of June to August 2002.
• The dataset's cross-platform presence on NASA Earthdata and Data.gov indicates recognized importance and curation.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing, including row count, file size, and a complete list of data columns.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' date between sources (2002-08-21 vs. 2026-03 12), creating uncertainty about provenance maintenance.

Provenance

Source

NSIDCV0

Collection Method

Collected by the QuikSCAT/SeaWinds satellite instrument during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02).

Time Range

June 2002 to August 2002

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:37:44.934744

Geography

Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02) area of Iowa, USA