Soil moisture over Canadian Arctic tundra: Trail Valley Creek, Northwest Territories [Canada] dataset

• Main Authors: Humphrey, Rachel E., Adams, Justin R., Berg, Aaron A., Marsh, Philip
• Other Authors: Soil Moisture Research Group. Department of Geography. College of Social and Applied Human Sciences. University of Guelph.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: Borealis 2014
• Subjects: Earth and Environmental Sciences; soil moisture; soil freeze/thaw; tundra; depth of soil freeze; permafrost; ice table; hydrological processes; active layer; scaling; Arctic; Northwest Territories; Canada; Valley Creek; Trail Valley Creek; Ice; Tundra
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5683/SP/GSFLE3

Synthetic aperature radar (SAR) remote sensing offers a technology potentially capable of capturing information about soil moisture at high spatial and temporal resolutions. This method has been shown to be effective in lower latitude environments however there has been a lack of investigation in arctic environments, particularly in organic permafrost soils. A preliminary analysis was performed at Trail Valley Creek, Northwest Territories, where an investigation of the statistical spatial variability of soil moisture and processes controlling soil moisture was completed. Both of these are key steps required for modeling soil moisture retrievals from satellites. Second, an assessment of the sensitivity of RADARSAT-2 backscatter to surface soil moisture conditions was completed to examine whether SAR can provide a much needed method to map soil moisture across the arctic. Results showed a strong relationship between backscatter and soil moisture (R2 =0.688) and demonstrate the potential for SAR soil moisture retrieval in arctic ecosystems.