Soilscape Wireless in Situ Networks in Support of Cyngss Land Applications

This work presents recent field activities in support of the NASA CYGNSS missions' land applications. Land reflected GNSS signals are known to be sensitive to surface topography, vegetation cover, and soil moisture. To better understand CYGNSS sensitivity to surface conditions, especially freeze-thaw states, two SoilSCAPE wireless in situ network sites were deployed in the San Luis Valley (SLV), CO, in late Oct. 2019. These sites capture similar weather and climatic conditions but have contrasting topography and vegetation cover. Initial analysis of CYGNSS Signal-to-Noise (SNR) observations over SLV indicates the need to fully account for land-scape topography. To this end, a forward wave scattering model that incorporates a Digital Elevation Model (DEM)is currently being developed to help explain the effects of local topography on SNR observations.