Monitoring Agricultural Risk in Canada Using L-Band Passive Microwave Soil Moisture from SMOS

AbstractSoil moisture from Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) passive microwave satellite data was assessed as an information source for identifying regions experiencing climate-related agricultural risk for a period from 2010 to 2013. Both absolute soil moisture and soil moisture anomalies compared to a 4-yr SMOS satellite baseline were used in the assessment. The 4-yr operational period of SMOS was wetter than the 30-yr climate normal in many locations, particularly in the late summer for most regions and in the spring for the province of Manitoba. This leads to a somewhat unrepresentative baseline that skews anomaly measures at different parts of the growing season. SMOS soil moisture does, however, show a clear trend where extremes are present, with drier-than-average conditions during periods that drought and dry soil risks were identified and wetter-than-average conditions when flooding and excess moisture were present. Areas where extreme weather events caused crop losses were identifiable using S...