Comparison of multifrequency truck radar and SIR-C backscatter for soil-moisture estimation in Washita ´94

During the first SIR-C mission in April, 1994, a three-frequency truck-mounted radar system was used to obtain radar backscatter data coincident with the AIRSAR and SIR-C radars for representative test fields in the Little Washita River watershed near Chickasha, Oklahoma, one of the designated hydrology supersites for the SIR-C experiment. Analysis of the resulting radar data sets indicates that (1) despite windy ground conditions, the truck radar operated in a very stable manner, producing accurate and repeatable measurements at both like and cross polarizations; and (2) both the Shuttle and truck radars were able to follow changing soil moisture conditions in most of the test fields quite well