A growing season Land Surface Process/Radiobrightness model for wheat-stubble in the Southern Great Plains

Our point-scale Land Surface Process/Radio-brightness (LSP/R) model for a p rairie grassland in the northern Great Plains was adapted to winter wheat-s tubble within the region of the Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP'97) Hydrolo gy Experiment. The model maintains running estimates of nearsurface soil mo isture and stored mater in soil and vegetation when forced by weather, and predicts the microwave brightness of the terrain. LSP/R model predictions w ere compared with the field observations recorded during SGP'97, The model captures canopy and soil temperatures very well, with the maximum mean and variance of the difference between the model and field temperatures being 1 .06 EE and 3.28 K-2, respectively. It yields reasonable predictions for the moisture In deeper layers of the soil, but its predictions for the moistur e in the upper layers are low by similar to 2.3% by volume. These underpred ictions of near-surface soil moisture result in higher H-pol brightnesses a t 19 GHz than those observed.