Engineering topics

Engman, Edwin T.

Publications and source records attributed to Engman, Edwin T..

25 records · Page 2

NASA NTRS1991

SAR-derived soil moisture measurements for bare fields

The results of algorithm development and testing for soil moisture retrieval at high incidence angles are reported. Based on first-order surface backscattering models, a physically based algorithm for retrieval of soil moisture has been developed and evaluated using NASA/JPL aircraft SAR (synthetic aperture radar) data. It shows that the co-polarization ratio is sensitive to soil moisture change but not to surface roughness at high incidence angles. This algorithm performed well at L-band and should be useful for repetitive, large-area soil moisture monitoring, without requiring surface roughness measurements. This study suggests that incidence angles greater than 40 deg are optimal for such monitoring.

Shi, Jiancheng↗

NASA NTRS1991

MACHYDRO-90 - The microwave aircraft experiment for hydrology

MACHYDRO-90 is a multisensor aircraft campaign (MAC) that was held in central Pennsylvania over an eleven day period in July 1990. The emphasis of the campaign was on the microwave measurements of soil moisture, although other aspects of hydrology and microwave-target interactions were also studied. A description is given of the experiment, its organization, and the meteorological conditions during the eleven days. Preliminary results are also presented from PBMR (Push-Broom Microwave Radiometer) and SAR (synthetic aperture radar) measurements of soil moisture. These results are portrayed in the context of the hydrology, which, during this experiment, exhibited dry and wet extremes.

Engman, Edwin T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Progress in microwave remote sensing of soil moisture

Significant progress has been made in the application of microwave remote sensing for measuring soil moisture. Both passive and active systems have demonstrated the capability for measuring soil moisture. However, several questions are still unresolved regarding the optimal instrument configuration and other target characteristics, such as roughness and vegetation. In addition, the most likely disciplines for using these data, agriculture and hydrology, do not currently possess adequate models or procedures for using these new data.

Engman, Edwin T.↗

NASA NTRS1990

The L-band PBMR measurements of surface soil moisture in FIFE

The NASA Langley Research Center's L-band pushbroom microwave radiometer (PBMR) aboard the NASA C-130 aircraft was used to map surface soil moisture at and around the Konza Prairie Natural Research Area in Kansas during the four intensive field campaigns of FIFE in May-October 1987. There was a total of 11 measurements was made when soils were known to be saturated. This measurement was used for the calibration of the vegetation effect on the microwave absorption. Based on this calibration, the data from other measurements on other days were inverted to generate the soil moisture maps. Good agreement was found when the estimated soil moisture values were compared to those independently measured on the ground at a number of widely separated locations. There was a slight bias between the estimated and measured values, the estimated soil moisture on the average being lower by about 1.8 percent. This small bias, however, was accounted for by the difference in time of the radiometric measurements and the soil moisture ground sampling.

Wang, James R.↗

NASA NTRS1989

Mapping surface soil moisture with L-band radiometric measurements

A NASA C-130 airborne remote sensing aircraft was used to obtain four-beam pushbroom microwave radiometric measurements over two small Kansas tall-grass prairie region watersheds, during a dry-down period after heavy rainfall in May and June, 1987. While one of the watersheds had been burned 2 months before these measurements, the other had not been burned for over a year. Surface soil-moisture data were collected at the time of the aircraft measurements and correlated with the corresponding radiometric measurements, establishing a relationship for surface soil-moisture mapping. Radiometric sensitivity to soil moisture variation is higher in the burned than in the unburned watershed; surface soil moisture loss is also faster in the burned watershed.

Wang, James R.↗

NASA NTRS1987

Evaluating roughness models of radar backscatter

Three radar backscatter roughness models were assessed using soil moisture data collected by the Space Shuttle flight 41G SIR-B SAR in an intensively farmed area. The SIR-B data swath included a large number of bare, dry fields with a large variety of surface roughnesses. The small perturbation model gives the best results, particularly when fields with a definite periodic row structure were omitted. The standard deviation of surface heights appears to be a good measure of relative roughness conditions, but the correlation length is not a good descriptor of the surface, and does not seem to be related in any way to the measured backscatter.

Engman, Edwin T.↗

NASA NTRS1987

The effects of soil moisture, surface roughness, and vegetation on L-band emission and backscatter

Measurements performed with SIR-B at 1.28 GHz and an airborne multiple-beam push-broom radiometer at 1.4 GHz over agricultural fields near Fresno, California are examined. A theoretical model (Kirchhoff approximation) was used to assess the effects of surface roughness and vegetation (alfalfa and lettuce) with respect to the responses of microwave emission and backscatter to soil-moisture variations. It is found that the surface roughness plays a dominant role compared to the vegetation cover in the microwave backscatter.

Wang, James R.↗