In order to really accurately predict weather and near-term climate, it is necessary to take into consideration soil moisture in the top meter of soil: it governs moisture and energy fluxes at the land-atmosphere interface, and it plays a significant role in partitioning of the precipitation into runoff and infiltration. This 68-page report presents the observations of an experiment using remotely sensed microwave observations with a view towards incorporating the findings into the models used to estimate energy and moisture fluxes and improve root zone soil moisture estimates. Written by Tara Bongiovanni, Heather Enos, Alejandro Monsivais-Huertero, Blaire Colvin, Karthik Nagarajan, Jasmeet Judge, Pang-Wei Liu, Juan Fernandez-Diaz, Roger De Roo, Yuriy Goykhman, Xueyang Duan, Daniel Preston, Ramesh Shrestha, Clint Slatton, Mahta Moghaddam, and Anthony England , and published by the UF Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, August 2011.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ae476