Validating the BERMS in situ Soil Water Content Data Record with a Large Scale Temporary Network
2013
Cosh, Michael D. H. | Jackson, Thomas J. | Smith, Craig | Toth, Brenda | Berg, Aaron A.
Calibration and validation of soil moisture satellite products requires data records of large spatial and temporal extent and for diverse land cover types. Obtaining this data, especially for forests, can be challenging. These challenges can include the remoteness of the locations, and expense of equipment. A location with a long record of soil water content data and the potential provide this important data is the Boreal Ecosystem Research and Monitoring Sites (BERMS) in Saskatchewan Canada. In and around the BERMS study area, there are five long-term soil water content profile stations. These stations potentially provide a critical but incomplete view of the soil water content patterns across a study domain of 10, 000 square kilometers, however, the representativeness of these observations for this purpose has not yet been evaluated. In coordination with the Canadian Experiment-Soil Moisture 2010 (CANEX-SM10), a temporary network of surface soil water content sensors was installed during the summer of 2010 to enhance the data resources of the BERMS network. During the 3-month deployment, 20 stations recorded surface soil water content which was then used as basis for up-scaling and validating the BERMS network and products from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Satellite. This large domain is approximately 1200 square kilometers and provides a higher confidence because of the increased number of sampling sites. Using temporal stability analysis, this network verified that the BERMS network could be scaled to a satellite scale footprint with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.025 m3/m3, and applied to the entire period of record.
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