Calibration and Validation of NASA (SMAP) Satellite for the Retrieval of Soil Moisture and Its Applications to Water Resources and Dust Storms in Kuwait

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Satellite imagery, particularly in the microwave domain, provides key information on land surface and subsurface parameters. The productive Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission sponsored by NASA and scheduled for launch in 2014 will have two microwave sensors, one active and one passive, commonly known as radar and radiometer, respectively. Observations from these sensors will greatly improve our understanding of the dynamics of surface condition and the interaction between land and atmosphere. Soil moisture will be the core deliverable of the mission. However, observed backscatter and brightness temperature will also be sensitive to soil texture and change in surface condition. In Kuwait, these observations are critical for several applications, like dust storm prediction and monitoring, air quality and human health. In addition, soil moisture is particularly important for hydrology, climate and weather forecasting, carbon cycle, environmental and agriculture. Another very crucial application of SMAP is the study of water scarcity in changing climatic conditions. Current climate model uncertainties result in disagreement on assessment of water availability in the region. SMAP data will enable climate models to be brought into agreement on future trends in water resource availability. SMAP has unique configuration fully dedicated for the retrieval of soil moisture from both active and passive microwave sensors. SMAP will be launched by NASA in November 2014 to provide global measurement of surface soil moisture. The SMAP instrument includes a radiometer operating at L band (1.41 GHz) and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) operating at L-band (1.20 GHz). The radiometer will measure the surface emission while SAR will measure the backscatter from the earth surface. NASA favorably selected the soil moisture observation site established in Kuwait amongst few other networks in the world, as core calibration/validation site for the mission. The main objective of this project is to build upon this initial successful effort and expand it to study the physics of microwave signatures in a unique desert environment. The objectives of our work in the pre-launch phase will involve calibration testing, and improving of models and algorithms for soil moisture retrieval. Then we will verify and improve the performance of algorithms and validate the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval in the post-launch part. Scatterometer/radiometer will be used for studying the microwave signatures of desert terrain. Finally, we will participate in the validation campaign in coordination with other core groups working on the SMAP mission. This project is a spinoff of our earlier research in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) sponsored by KFAS.