Scanning L-band Active Passive (SLAP)--a New Airborne Sensor for Soil Moisture/Frozen Soil

Ed Kim, NASA GSFC, ed.kim@nasa.gov (Presenter)

This paper introduces a new NASA airborne instrument, the Scanning L-band Active Passive (SLAP). SLAP is a simulator of SMAP, which means it is well-tailored for Carbon Cycle and Ecological investigations requiring high-resolution observations of soil moisture and freeze/thaw state.

SLAP has both passive (radiometer) and active (radar) microwave L-band imaging capabilities. The radiometer observes using duplicate front end hardware from the SMAP satellite radiometer. It also includes a duplicate of the digital backend development unit for SMAP, thus the novel Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) detection and mitigation features and algorithms for SMAP are duplicated with very high fidelity in SLAP. The digital backend provides fully-polarimetric capability. The real-aperture radar has quad-pol capability. Radar and radiometer share one antenna via diplexers that are spare units from the Aquarius satellite instrument.

SLAP’s initial flights were conducted in Dec 2013 over the eastern shore of Maryland and successfully demonstrated radiometer imaging over 2 full SMAP 36x36 km grid cells at 1km resolution within 3 hours. A second flight on the same day also demonstrated SLAP’s quick-turn abilities and high-resolution/wide-swath capabilities with 200m resolution across a 1500m swath from 2000 ft AGL. Additional flights were conducted as part of the GPM iPHEX campaign in May, 2014. The NASA Terrestrial Hydrology Program is planning a series of SLAP campaigns in 2015 in central North America, including possibly one in Canada for freeze/thaw research. Additional campaigns in 2016 are being discussed, and synergy with ABoVE should be explored.

This poster presents example imagery, as well as details of the radiometer and radar performance and calibration. The paper will also describe the mission performance achievable on a King Air platform as well as other platforms.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Theme 3: Future research direction and priorities: perspectives relevant to the next decadal survey   (Mon 4:30 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Related Activity: Related Activity or Previously Funded CC&E Activity not listed ...details

Poster Location ID: 203