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This new report from UF/IFAS researchers provides another set of observation data that can be used to develop better models for accurate prediction of weather and near-term climate. It describes the observations conducted during the MicroWEX-11, a season-long experiment incorporating active and passive microwave observations for bare soil, elephant grass, and sweet corn using a variety of sensors to understand land–atmosphere interactions and their effect on observed microwave signatures. These observations match that of satellite-based passive microwave radiometers and NASA’s recently launched Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. This 96-page report was written by Tara Bongiovanni, Pang-Wei Liu, Karthik Nagarajan, Daniel Preston, Patrick Rush, Tim H.M. van Emmerik, Robert Terwilleger, Alejandro Monsivais-Huertero, Jasmeet Judge, Susan Steele-Dunne, Roger De Roo, Ruzbeh Akbar, Ella Baar, Max Wallace, and Anthony England and published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, July 2015. AE514/AE514: Field Observations during the Eleventh Microwave Water and Energy Balance Experiment (MicroWEX-11): from April 25, 2012, through December 6, 2012 (ufl.edu)

For accurate weather prediction, accurate modeling of surface hydrological processes is very important. Most current models capture the biophysics of moisture and energy transport and of crop growth and development pretty well. However, model estimates of soil moisture in the root zone diverge from reality due to accumulated errors in initialization, forcings, and computation. Remotely sensed microwave observations can be assimilated into these models to improve root zone soil moisture and crop yield estimates. This 100-page report describes the observations conducted during a season-long experiment in elephant grass and sweet corn using active and passive microwave observations. Published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, April 2015. (Photo: J. Casanova, UF) AE512/AE512: Field Observations During the Tenth Microwave Water and Energy Balance Experiment (MicroWEX-10): from March 1, 2011 through January 5, 2012 (ufl.edu)

The goal of MicroWEX-9 was to conduct a season-long experiment that incorporated passive microwave observations as well as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) observations for a growing season of elephant grass. The variety of sensors would allow for further understanding of the land-atmosphere interactions during the growing season, and their effect on observed passive microwave signatures at 6.7 GHz and 1.4 GHz, as well as LiDAR scans. This 72-page fact sheet was written by Tara Bongiovanni, Pang-Wei Liu, Karthik Nagarajan, Robert Terwilleger, Alejandro Monsivais-Huertero, Jasmeet Judge, Juan Fernandez-Diaz, Daniel Preston, Tyler Cheney, Jason Motsinger, and published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, January 2013. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ae494

In order to really accurately predict weather and near-term climate, it is necessary to take into consideration soil moisture in the top meter of soil: it governs moisture and energy fluxes at the land-atmosphere interface, and it plays a significant role in partitioning of the precipitation into runoff and infiltration. This 68-page report presents the observations of an experiment using remotely sensed microwave observations with a view towards incorporating the findings into the models used to estimate energy and moisture fluxes and improve root zone soil moisture estimates. Written by Tara Bongiovanni, Heather Enos, Alejandro Monsivais-Huertero, Blaire Colvin, Karthik Nagarajan, Jasmeet Judge, Pang-Wei Liu, Juan Fernandez-Diaz, Roger De Roo, Yuriy Goykhman, Xueyang Duan, Daniel Preston, Ramesh Shrestha, Clint Slatton, Mahta Moghaddam, and Anthony England, and published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, August 2011. AE476/AE476: Field Observations During the Eighth Microwave Water and Energy Balance Experiment (MicroWEX-8): from June 16 through August 24, 2009 (ufl.edu)