Economic, social, and environmental planning for a carbon-constrained future requires a capacity to monitor climate change impacts on vegetation and soil moisture at a level of detail that does not currently exist.
While radar measurements from satellites can provide this important information, the signals are confounded by complex interactions with the earth surface.
Specifically, terrain micro-topography, vegetation structure/ biomass, and the underlying soil moisture status, all interact together in an intricate way.
Using airborne radar data together with detailed ground measurements, models of this complex interaction will be developed and tested for subsequent time-series application to satellite data across Australia.
For further Project detail, see SMAPEx.
Project Update
HIGHLIGHTS
In the December quarter the estimation of canopy water content from PLIS L-band data continued, while an analysis of techniques for retrieving soil moisture data in agricultural crops was initiated in collaboration with a PhD student from Monash University.
A number of proposals have been submitted for continuing research and data acquisition.
CRCSI PROJECT PARTICIPANTS
University of Melbourne - Landgate
This project was supported by the Australian Research Council.
