Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2020ND089B

Soil moisture mapping using Landsat data in a frigid glaciolacustrine landscape with agricultural production

Institute: North Dakota
Year Established: 2020 Start Date: 2020-02-29 End Date: 2021-02-27
Total Federal Funds: $4,263 Total Non-Federal Funds: $8,526

Principal Investigators: Aaron Daigh

Abstract: Soil moisture (SM) measured as volumetric water content (VWC), is commonly governed by atmospheric processes (rainfall) and land-surface characteristics (soil texture, crop residue and crop type). Weather stations are easy source for getting SM, rainfall, evapotranspiration that provide estimate over large crop fields. Precise VWC determination is influential in drought monitoring, weather forecast, hydrological modeling and agricultural management. Remote sensing data are vastly more available and improvement in spatial and temporal resolution has drastically increased its use in precision agriculture. Weather stations within the glaciolacustrine Red River Valley of the North (RRVN) provide information on precipitation, soil and air temperature, and evapotranspiration that are used by farmers to plan field operations. However, a lack of evaluation of the representativeness of station observations limits the reliability. This research aims to determine when and where weather station (i.e., NDAWN) data can be extrapolated to represent soil moisture for various soil types and agronomic crops in the Red River Valley of the North. In addition, we determine correlations between soil moisture with duration of precipitation/evapotranspiration historic and influencing factors and to determine and evaluate relationships between empirical soil moisture measurements with satellite SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive sensors)