Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) Mission: Observations of Root Zone Soil Moisture and their Impact on Improving NEE Estimates in North America

Mahta Moghaddam, USC, mahta@usc.edu (Presenter)
Elaine Chapin, JPL, elaine.chapin@jpl.nasa.gov
Wade Crow, USDA, wade.crow@ars.usda.gov
Richard Cuenca, Oregon State University, richard.cuenca@oregonstate.edu
Dara Entekhabi, MIT, darae@mit.edu
Scott Hensley, JPL, shensley@jpl.nasa.gov
Yunling Lou, JPL, yunling.lou@jpl.nasa.gov
Paul Moorcroft, Harvard University, paul_moorcroft@harvard.edu
Rolf Reichle, GSFC, rolf.reichle@nasa.gov
Sassan Saatchi, JPL, sassan.s.saatchi@jpl.nasa.gov
Paul Shepson, Purdue University, phsepson@purdue.edu

Active microwave remote sensing has long been recognized as a key component of an effective environmental observing strategy, due to the strong relationships of radar measurements with geometric and compositional properties of the Earth’s landscape. The Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) Earth Venture Suborbital 1 (EV-S1) mission was selected by NASA in 2010 to utilize a P-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) to observe root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) distributions at representative north American biomes, and use such distributions to provide a new estimate of net ecosystem exchange (NEE) for North America. North American ecosystems are critical components of the global carbon cycle, exchanging large amounts of carbon dioxide and other gases with the atmosphere. These fluxes are quantified through NEE, but current continental-scale estimates of NEE contain high levels of uncertainty. As much as 60–80% of the uncertainty may be attributed to its spatial and temporal heterogeneity; mapping spatial and temporal variations of RZSM therefore has a key role in addressing a major challenge of climate research. This poster will describe the AirMOSS mission, its instrument and flight platform, and RZSM and NEE data products. The retrieval results for RZSM will be emphasized, and the accuracy of derived products will be presented.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  General Contributions   (Tue 4:35 PM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Moghaddam, Mahta: Airborne Microwave Observatory of Subcanopy and Subsurface (AirMOSS) Earth Ventures-1 Mission ...details
• Moghaddam, Mahta: Mapping Wetlands Dynamics for Reducing Uncertainties in the Boreal North American Carbon Budget ...details

Poster Location ID: 189