NAFE

1

• NAFE05
• HYDRA PROBE DATA
• Rocco Panciera and Jeffrey Walker
• University of Melbourne
• Jetse Kalma
• University of Newcastle

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NAFE05 soil moisture objectives

• Top 5cm water content spatial monitoring using
  Stevens Water Hydra probe
• Farm scale monitoring at multiple resolutions
  (6.25m to 1km), every 2-3 days
• Regional scale monitoring at low resolution
  (1km), weekly.

3
Regional data
31/10/05
Elevation
Rainfall
Soil type
Cumulated Monthly Rainfall (mm)
4
Regional data Krui area
5
Soil moisture data Merriwa area
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Farm scale data Pembroke
NDVI
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Farm scale data Stanley
NDVI
8
Farm scale data Illogan
NDVI
Aerial photo
BE Black Earths heavy clay soils (clay
content usually 50-80) with uniform
texture profi E Euchrozems red, strongly
structured, clay soils
Soil type
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Farm scale data Dales
NDVI
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Farm scale data Merriwa Park
NDVI
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Farm scale data Cullingral
Aerial photo
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High resolution data - Pembroke
Aerial photo
Soil moisture
NDVI

• Variable vegetation cover
• Native grass/ Barley
• Microtopography

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High resolution data - Stanley

• Microtopography
• Uniform vegetation cover

Aerial photo
Soil moisture
NDVI
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High resolution data - Illogan
Soil moisture
Aerial photo

• Variable vegetation cover
• Barley / Oat
• Flat topography

NDVI
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High resolution data - Midlothian
Soil moisture
NDVI

• Variable vegetation cover
• crop / bare soil
• Flat topography

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High resolution data Merriwa Park
NDVI
Soil moisture

• Microtopography
• Uniform vegetation cover

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High resolution data Cullingral
NDVI
Soil moisture

• Variable vegetation cover
• Wheat / Barley
• Flat topography

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Conclusions

• NAFE05 soil moisture sampling objectives
  achieved
• - multi-resolution
• - spatial coverage
• - temporal coverage
• Data collected show sensible correlation with
  land surface features (veg biomass, soil texture,
  topography etc)

Future work

• Validation of PLMR soil moisture product
• Analysis of PLMR brightness temperatures scaling
  properties and relation with multi-scale ground
  data
• Development and testing of downscaling technique
  for SMOS application
• Improvement of soil moisture retrieval techniques
  from multi-angle passive microwave observations

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How can we do better in NAFE06?
Possible Solution
Problem

• Different material
• More compact design
• Permanent connections
• Smaller battery
• ???
• Improve software stability
• Daily data processing/check

• Pole too flexible in hard soil 
• Loose cables
• Loose electrical connections
• Heavy battery
• Prongs bended by stones
• iPaq software errors
• Missing data

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NAFE'05