EV-1 Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) Mission Status

Mahta Moghaddam, The University of Michigan, mmoghadd@umich.edu (Presenter)
Wade Crow, USDA ARS HRSL, wade.crow@ars.usda.gov
Richard Cuenca, Oregon State University, cuenca@engr.orst.edu
Dara Entekhabi, MIT, darae@mit.edu
Anthony Freeman, JPL, anthony.freeman@jpl.nasa.gov
Scott Hensley, JPL, scott.hensley@jpl.nasa.gov
David Hollinger, USDA Forest Service, davidh@christa.unh.edu
Paul R. Moorcroft, Harvard University, paul_moorcroft@harvard.edu
Rolf Reichle, NASA GSFC, rolf.reichle@nasa.gov
Sassan Saatchi, CALTECH/JPL, sassan.saatchi@jpl.nasa.gov
Paul Shepson, Purdue University, pshepson@purdue.edu
Yunling Lou, JPL, yunling.lou@jpl.nasa.gov
Elaine Chapin, JPL, elaine.chapin@jpl.nasa.gov

AirMOSS is one of the five Earth Venture-1 missions selected in May 2010, with the goal of improving the estimates of the north American net ecosystem exchange (NEE) through high-resolution observations of root zone soil moisture (RZSM). The AirMOSS investigation seeks to address the following science questions:

• Quantitatively, what are the local-, regional-, and continental-scale heterogeneities of RZSM in North America?

• Quantitatively, how does RZSM control ecosystem carbon fluxes at each of these scales?

• By how much will the estimates of North American NEE improve with the accurate knowledge of both the mean and the variance of RZSM?

To obtain estimates of RZSM and assess its heterogeneities, AirMOSS will fly a P-band (430 MHz) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) over 2500 km2 areas within nine major biomes of North America. The flights will cover areas containing flux tower sites in regions from the boreal forests in central Canada to the tropical forests in Costa Rica. The radar snapshots will be used to generate 100-m resolution estimates of RZSM via inversion of scattering models of vegetated surfaces. These retrievals will in turn be assimilated or otherwise used to estimate land model hydrological parameters over the nine biomes, generating a fine-grained time record of soil moisture evolution in the root zone, and integrated with an ecosystem demography model to predict component carbon fluxes. The sensitivity of carbon flux components to RZSM uncertainties and heterogeneity will be quantified. In-situ soil moisture and atmospheric carbon measurements are planned for validation of the AirMOSS product suite.

The AirMOSS radar is currently under construction at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), with first science flights expected in June 2012. In-situ soil sensing profiles are currently being deployed at the AirMOSS sites, and test flights for atmospheric carbon measurements are also planned in the next several months. The entire data processing chain, including SAR data processing, radar RZSM retrievals, land surface hydrology modeling, and ecosystem demography modeling are being implemented and tested prior to the first science flights. This poster will provide an overview of the mission, campaign design, and development status. It will also invite community input and participation.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Other   (Tue 11:30 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Crow, Wade: Ecological and agricultural productivity forecasting using root-zone soil moisture products derived from the NASA SMAP mission. ...details
• Crow, Wade: Enhancing the USDA Global Crop Production Decision Support System with NASA Land Information System and Water Cycle Satellite Observations ...details
• Moghaddam, Mahta: Mapping Wetlands Dynamics for Reducing Uncertainties in the Boreal North American Carbon Budget and Diagnosis and Prognosis of changes in Lake and Wetland Extent on the regional Carbon Balance of northern Eurasia ...details
• Saatchi, Sassan: Vegetation Structure Studies ...details

Poster Location ID: 242