Groundtruth collection for the JPL-SAR and ERS-1 campaign in Flevoland and the Veluwe (NL) 1991

In the framework of the SIR-C/X-SAR (space shuttle) project an airborne campaign with the NASA/JPL multiband polarimetric SAR (a prototype of the space shuttle-SAR) is carried out over a number of the selected European sites. The campaign (JPL-SAR experiment 1991;3.2/AO-02) was planned for a six-weeks period on a multi-temporal basis starting the last week of June until the first week of August. Thus it coincided with a substantial part of the agricultural growing season. The Flevoland site has obtained the status of international 'supersite' for the SIR-C/X-SAR project and was visited four times during the campaign (June 15th, July 3rd, July 12th and July 28th 1991). Within both projects (3.2/AO-02 and 3.2/TO-01) ground data was collected for soil and vegetation in agricultural areas comprising crops (Flevoland) and grasslands (Veluwe). Forest data was collected in selected study stands in the Horsterwold and Speulderbos. A database will be established suitable for the study of land use soil moisture mapping. Soil moisture was measured as well as soil surface roughness and crop observations were made.