Measuring Tibetan soils

An ‘Elbara’ L-band radiometer placed on the Tibetan Plateau to help interpret measurements from ESA’s SMOS mission. Ground-truth measurements form an important part of the mission. To include different soil types and vegetation cover, validation measurements are made in many parts of the world, from Spain to Antarctica. New Elbara systems were recently placed in Poland and on the Tibetan Plateau. Understanding the Tibetan Plateau’s water cycle is extremely important to manage Asia’s water resources since major rivers such as the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Mekong, Yangtze and the Yellow River are all fed from the plateau.