This data set includes sliced soil core moisture data collected during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2002 (SMEX02), conducted during June and July 2002 in the Walnut Creek watershed in south-central Iowa, USA. The study parameters include gravimetric soil moisture (GSM) and bulk soil density.
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Data were collected manually at two corn and two soybean sites. Data are provided as ASCII text files. The same data are available in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. All data are available via FTP.
These data were collected as part of a validation study for the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). AMSR-E is a mission instrument launched aboard NASA's Aqua Satellite on 04 May 2002. AMSR-E validation studies linked to SMEX are designed to evaluate the accuracy of AMSR-E soil moisture data. Specific validation objectives include assessing and refining soil moisture algorithm performance; verifying soil moisture estimation accuracy; investigating the effects of vegetation, surface temperature, topography, and soil texture on soil moisture accuracy; and determining the regions that are useful for AMSR-E soil moisture measurements.