SMEX04 Airborne L-Band Radiometer Data for Arizona and Sonora

SMEX04 Two-Dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radiometer (2D-STAR) Brightness Temperatures, Sonora, Version 1 contains dual-polarized L-band brightness temperature and soil moisture data. The dataset was collected by an aircraft instrument flown over Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004. Documentation was provided solely by the Principal Investigator(s) and support may be limited.

Use Cases

• Calibrating and validating satellite soil moisture products using L-band brightness temperature measurements.
• Analyzing the relationship between dual-polarized (H and V) brightness temperatures and in-situ soil moisture.
• Studying land surface hydrology and microwave emission characteristics in semi-arid regions.
• Developing or testing soil moisture retrieval models for airborne synthetic aperture radiometers.

Strengths

• Contains specific dual-polarized L-band brightness temperature data, a key variable for soil moisture sensing.
• Data was collected as part of a structured field campaign (Soil Moisture Experiment 2004).
• Provides geospatial coverage for a defined region (Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico).

Limitations

• Critical metadata such as column names, row count, and file size are unknown across all platforms.
• Documentation was not reviewed or edited by NSIDC, indicating potential support and quality issues.
• Platforms conflict on the last updated date (2004-08-26 vs. 2026-03-12), creating uncertainty about maintenance.

Provenance

Source

Principal Investigator(s) for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04); data hosted by NSIDC.

Collection Method

Measured by the Two-Dimensional Synthetic Aperture Radiometer (2D-STAR) instrument aboard an aircraft.

Time Range

2004

Freshness

2026-03-12 21:17:36.560080

Geography

Arizona, USA and Sonora, Mexico