SMEX03 Airborne Radar Soil Moisture Measurements for Oklahoma

SMEX03 Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) Data contains radar soil moisture measurements collected over the Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 regional study areas in Oklahoma, USA. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration gathered this data using an AIRSAR instrument mounted on a DC-8 aircraft, which flew over the area on six days during the study period. The dataset's documentation was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and was not further developed or thoroughly reviewed by NSIDC.

Use Cases

• Calibrating satellite-based soil moisture retrieval algorithms using airborne radar backscatter measurements.
• Validating land surface models by comparing simulated soil moisture with in-situ and airborne radar data.
• Studying the relationship between radar backscatter coefficients and soil moisture content in an agricultural region.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of soil moisture across the SMEX03 Oklahoma study area.

Strengths

• Data was collected using the specialized Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) instrument on a DC-8 aircraft.
• Measurements provide a spatially explicit record of soil moisture over the Oklahoma study area from six distinct flight days.
• The dataset is associated with a major coordinated field experiment (Soil Moisture Experiment 2003).

Limitations

• Documentation support is limited as it was provided solely by Principal Investigators and not reviewed by NSIDC.
• Key technical specifications like row count, column names, and exact file size are unavailable across all sources.
• There is a conflict in reported last updated dates: datagov lists 2026-03-12, while nasa_earthdata lists 2003-07-12.

Provenance

Source

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Collection Method

Airborne remote sensing via an AIRSAR instrument mounted on a DC-8 aircraft.

Time Range

2003 (during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 campaign)

Freshness

2026-03-12 22:25:31.199056

Geography

Soil Moisture Experiment 2003 (SMEX03) regional study areas in Oklahoma, USA.