SMOS data over crop areas of Argentina: analysis of soil moisture and optical depth products
Poster- SMOS Land Applications Workshop, 25 – 27 February 2013- Frascatti (Rome) Italy
Abstract: The Argentina’s Pampas region (aprox 50 million ha) is located in the center-east of Argentina where the main agricultural activities are cereal production and cattle-raising. It accounts for more than 90% of the national grain production. Soybean, wheat, maize and sunflower are the main crops. Weather is among the most important and uncontrollable elements affecting agriculture in this region. The seasonal cycle of precipitation shows a maximum from October to April and a minimum from May to September. We use the Precipitation Deficit/Excess (PDE) as an indicator of the climatic variability of the region and as a reference for the soil moisture product analysis. PDE is the difference between precipitation and potential evapotranspiration. It was computed: (i) using daily precipitation (National Weather Service and National Institute of Agricultural Technology) and maximum and minimum temperatures data from 33 stations, located in the rain fed agriculture production region of Argentina for the period 1970-2006, and (ii) monthly potential evapotranspiration calculated following Thornthwaite, 1948, Camargo et al. 1999.
keywords: SMOS – soil moisture – optical depth