PRISM 

P-band Radiometer Inferred Soil Moisture

Project Overview 

Timely soil moisture information on the near-surface layer is critical to improve water management for food production in the face of extreme climate variability. Current satellite technologies are limited to the top ~5cm layer of soil using an L-band radiometer. It is postulated that P-band radiometer observations will not only provide soil moisture information on a soil layer thickness that more closely relates to that affecting crop and pasture growth, but that it will produce greater spatial coverage with improved accuracy to that from L-band. This is because P-band should be less affected by surface roughness conditions and have a reduced attenuation by the overlaying vegetation.

The P-band Radiometer Inferred Soil Moisture project (PRISM) provides high resolution multi-frequency passive and active microwave remote sensing capabilities at P and L band. The overall objective of PRISM is to develop algorithms and tehniques to demonstrate that the top ~15cm layer of soil moisture can be remotely sensed using a new state-of-art P-band radiometer capability. This comprises a series of tower and airborne capaigns across Victoria and New South Wales, commencing from 2017. The facility includes the Polarimetric P-band Multi-beam Radiometer (PPMR), Polarimetric Lband Multi-beam Radiometer (PLMR), the Polarimetric L-band Imaging SAR (PLIS), and Polarimetric P-band Imaging SAR (PPIS). Concurrently with each campaign, supporting ground data on soil moisture, vegetation properties, soil temperature and surface roughness were collected at intensive monitoring sites.

The PRISM campaigns have been made possible through infrastructure (LE0453434, LE0882509, LE150100047, LE190100045) and research (DP170102373) funding from the Australian Research Council. Initial setup and maintenance of the study catchment were funded by research grants (DP0343778, DP0557543, DP0879212, DP140100572 and DP170102373) from the Australian Research Council, and the CRC for Catchment Hydrology. PRISM also relies upon the collaboration of interested scientists from throughout Australia and around the world.

Location of the PRISM experiments

Schedule of PRISM Aircraft experiments 
Experiment
Date
CORALYNN-17
November - December 2017
CORALYNN-18
October 2018
PRISM-19
September-October 2019
PRISM-21
March 2021
TOWER
November 2017 - May 2021
PLEASE NOTE: The following data sets should be acknowledged according to the following:

PRISM-21:

X. Wu, N. Ye, J. Walker, I.-Y. Yeo, T. Jackson, Y. Kerr, E. Kim and A. McGrath. (2021). The P-band Radiometer Inferred Soil Moisture Experiment 2021 WORKPLAN. Monash University, 136.

PRISM-19:

X. Wu, N. Ye, J. Walker, I.-Y. Yeo, T. Jackson, Y. Kerr, E. Kim and A. McGrath. (2019). The P-band Radiometer Inferred Soil Moisture Experiment 2019 WORKPLAN. Monash University, 121.

CORALYNN-17 & CORALYNN-18:

Ye, N., Wu, X., Walker, J. P., Boopathi, N., Zhu, L., Shen, X., Jackson, T. J., Kerr, Y., Kim, E., McGrath, A. & Yeo, I. Y., PopStefanija, I., 1 Mar 2019, 2019 URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference, AP-RASC 2019. Airborne P-band passive microwave soil moisture remote sensing: preliminary results. IEEE, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 8738311. (2019 URSI Asia-Pacific Radio Science Conference, AP-RASC 2019).

TOWER:

Shen, X., Walker, J.P., Ye, N., Wu, X., F. Brakhasi, Boopathi, N., Zhu, L., Yeo, I.Y., Kim, E., Kerr, Y., & Jackson, T. (2022). Evaluation of tau-omega model over bare and wheat-covered flat and periodic soil surfaces at P- and L-band. Remote Sensing of Environment, 273, 112960.

Shen, X., Walker, J.P., Ye, N., Wu, X., F. Brakhasi, Boopathi, N., Zhu, L., Yeo, I.Y., Kim, E., Kerr, Y., & Jackson, T. (2022). Impact of random and periodic surface roughness on P- and L-band radiometry. Remote Sensing of Environment, 269, 112825.

Shen, X., Walker, J.P., Ye, N., Wu, X., Boopathi, N., Yeo, I.Y., Zhang, L., & Zhu, L. (2021). Soil moisture retrieval depth of P- and L-band radiometry: predictions and observations. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 59, 6814-6822.