Backscattering model for dynamic corn during SMAPVEX16-MicroWEX

Soil moisture (SM) is an important land surface variable for understanding the water cycle, ecosystem productivity, and linkages between water-carbon cycles. For SM studies, observations at L-band frequencies are more desirable due to larger penetration depths. The NASA Soil Moisture Active/Passive (SMAP) mission includes active and passive sensors at L-band to provide global observations of SM. The active observations are available from April-July 2015. In addition to the SM sensitivity, radar backscatter is highly sensitive to roughness of soil surface and scattering within the vegetation. Despite much progress in the development of backscattering models, there is still a gap in validating such models under dynamic vegetation conditions such agricultural crops. The goal of this study is to improve a coherent model and evaluate it using season-long active observations at high temporal resolution during the SMAPVEX16-MicroWEX experiment.