Cooperative Agreement for CESU-affiliated Partner with Chesapeake Watershed Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit

The US Geological Survey (USGS) Water Mission Area (WMA) Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) Research and Development Program is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research in the field of high spatial resolution soil moisture mapping using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based L-band sensing. Soil moisture varies widely at field and watershed scales, and current observational methods are inadequate to capture the spatial heterogeneity. Satellite observations using L-band, such as SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive), provide 40 km data every 2 to 3 days, while in-situ sensors provide point-scale measurements. The NGWOS program has expanded in-situ networks and adopted cosmic ray neutron sensing at Innovation Test Beds (ITB) across the country with the goal to generate soil moisture maps at 1 km scale daily. To develop and evaluate such products, more spatially continuous data sets are required, and such data can be obtained from an L-band sensor on a UAV platform.