This single file PDF is a redacted version of an original proposal submitted to the 2025 Nevada Space Grant Research Infrastructure solicitation. The annual progress on the research focus of this award was delivered on the afternoon Friday 03 April 2026 at the Annual Nevada NASA and SPACE GRANT EPSCoR Statewide Meeting held at the campus of the University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA in a student union ballroom. It was co-presented by Professor of Atmospheric Physics Dr. Marco Giordano and Professor of Soil Physics Dr. Markus Berli. There is a narrated version of that presentation to be released at a future date. This proposal was favorably reviewed and awarded in the Fall of 2025. Below we discuss the research path pursued following the award granted of this proposal, and the general progress of the research over a 6 month period of performance. The basics of the research outlines progress from the essential problem of determining near surface soil moisture (nSSM) by passive remote means in a favorable temporal and geospatial footprint. This method proposed improves upon satellite scaling and is more comparable to in-ground field measurement, with greater coverage in a shorter time. The problem of resolving an appropriate scaling to approach the problem is emphasized. Key significance of the research is that this approach is for meter squared footprints and providing direct connection to NASA's NISAR instrument but on at-will temporal measurement episodes. The research is based upon on the fundamentals of the relationship between factors influencing the earth's surface microwave emissivity, measurable brightness temperature (TB), surface roughness and soil moisture content. The details of the functionality of the dual-plate dual orthogonal polarized microwave antenna and the passive measurement scheme are addressed. The research team connected the aspects of signal reception, data reduction, signal processing, and strategies employed for georeferencing processed brightness temperatures (TB) to a specific and known geotagged basemap. For the scale of problem this was a considerable portion of UAS-borne instrument research. Preliminary first release of results from a controlled experimental field test on Sunday 23 November 2025 were subsequently presented as proof-of-concept and workflow development. The released remote sensing results directly compared the retrieved and geotagged soil moisture map with laboratory gravimetric analysis of specific ground points. The available results compared favorably between the L-Band soil moisture and the simultaneous ground- truth values. The relative insufficiency of coetaneous in-ground data made statistical metrics not viable to calculate for correlative purposes. The researchers made direct pathways forward for future work necessary to improve both data processing and analysis and workflows to achieve desired scientific outcomes and the technological and instrumental refinements necessary to collect "better data for better science". Preliminary results are contained in the companion document (slide deck) from the Nevada Statewide annual Meeting of 03 April 2026. Background, goal and objectives Soil moisture data is essential for water resources management, assessing vegetation health as well as reducing wildfire and flood risks in semi-arid environments such as Nevada. Currently, soil moisture is either measured with soil moisture probes (Figure 1a) on the ground and at the centimeter to meter-scale or by satellite-based remote sensing (e.g., with NASA SMAP or ESA SMOS satellites, Figure 1b) at the kilometer to continental scale. For the hydrologically-important intermediate scale (meter to kilometer) there is currently no established method for measuring soil moisture. NOTE: figure 1 is in the attached file included with this document. A need for hydrological scientists to quantify detailed aspects of soil moisture variability is the focus of this proposal. The ground surface conditions are altered by the severity of the wildfire surface burn (and other states of the ground-air interface system), which in-turn alter the rate and depth of water penetration depth from precipitation events. Run-off and surface infiltration have strong connections to post wildfire plant species growth and recovery, and surface geomorphologic responses such as landslide. UAS-borne L-Band radiometry can bridge the gap between point source in-ground volumetric soil moisture measurement values and those from satellite instruments as NISAR with greater geospatial domain, but diminished temporal resolution. This sub-study is to make progress along technological, methodological, and scientific lines of the need, to accurately determine near surface soil moisture and the local scale geophysical variables which influence its seasonality. Acknowledgement: the authors would express their gratitude to the Nevada State Office of Sponsored Programs Division of Research, and its individual staff members for arranging and hosting the annual statewide meeting where the results of this work were presented. To the Nevada State Space Grant and NASA EPSCoR director Professor Dr. Eric M. Wilcox for inviting us to present at his annual meeting, and for securing federal and state funding for the research infrastructure development sub-awards within the state of Nevada. Most importantly, we wish to give great thanks to our dedicated scientific colleagues who reviewed our proposal, offered insightful review feedback, and voted to grant our award.
Berli et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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