Soil Surface Roughness Parameters for SMEX05 Iowa Experiment

The 2005 dataset contains surface roughness parameters measured in the Walnut Creek watershed area of Iowa, USA, as part of the Soil Moisture Experiment 2005 (SMEX05). It includes calculated roughness coefficients derived from soil surface photographs taken during site characterization. The data was provided by Principal Investigators and archived by the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC).

Use Cases

• Validating soil moisture algorithms for satellite missions like SMAP or SMOS using ground-measured roughness coefficients.
• Improving hydrological models by incorporating spatially distributed surface roughness parameters from the Walnut Creek watershed.
• Calibrating radar backscatter models for agricultural and bare soil terrains with in-situ roughness data.
• Supporting research on the impact of surface roughness on microwave emission and scattering for soil moisture remote sensing.

Strengths

• Provides ground-truth surface roughness data for a key soil moisture field experiment (SMEX05).
• Focuses on a specific, well-documented agricultural watershed (Walnut Creek, Iowa).

Limitations

• Documentation was provided solely by Principal Investigators and not reviewed by NSIDC, potentially limiting support.
• Key technical details like row count, column names, and file size are unavailable across all sources.
• There is a conflict in the 'last updated' metadata between platforms (2005-07-05 and 2026-03-12).

Provenance

Source

Principal Investigators for the Soil Moisture Experiment 2005 (SMEX05).

Collection Method

Soil surface roughness photos were taken and roughness coefficients were calculated as part of the experiment site characterization protocol.

Time Range

2005

Freshness

2026-03-12

Geography

Walnut Creek watershed area, Iowa, USA.