The Semi-Arid Land-Surface-Atmospheric Mountain Experiment (SALSA-MEX) is an interdisciplinary 
experiment proposed to investigate the strong influence of mountain topography on local and regional 
atmospheric stratification and subsequent impacts on surface water and energy balance (Goodrich et al., 1993). 
The proposed location is the semiarid mountainous region of the San Pedro Basin, which straddles the U.S.- 
Mexico border near southeastern Arizona and includes WGEW. This experiment will combine measurements 
and modeling to increase our understanding of processes influenced by topography, such as enhanced 
precipitation, snowmelt and recharge to ground water aquifers. 
3 - RESULTS OF MONSOON’90 AND WALNUT GULCH’92 
During both the Monsoon’90 and WG’92 Experiments, several meteorological stations (located within 
WGEW) provided continuous measurements of air temperature, vapor pressure, wind speed and direction, 
solar radiation, net radiation, soil heat flux, soil temperature and soil moisture. In addition, rainfall and runoff 
were monitored using 85 weighing raingages and 23 runoff measuring stations. Three aircraft were used on 
a regular basis during the July-August campaign of the Monsoon’90 Experiment. Table 1 gives a general 
description the instruments flown on each aircraft and flight dates. During WG’92, remotely sensed data were 
acquired in the visible, near-infrared (NIR), thermal and microwave wavelengths from a variety of ground, 
aircraft and satellite platforms, with concurrent measurements of soil moisture, vegetation growth, and energy 
and water fluxes (summarized in Table 2). 
Table 1. General description of instruments flown during the Monsoon’90 Experiment aboard the 
Cessna, Aero commander, and C-130 aircraft and the Landsat, SPOT, NOAA and GOES satellites. 
PLATFORM 
INSTRUMENT 
NUM. 
OF 
BANDS 
WAVELENGTH 
RANGE 
FLIGHT DATES 
(DAY OF YEAR 
1990) 
Cessna 
Exotech Radiometer, EFOV: 15° 
4 
0.50-0.89 pm or 
0.45-0.90 pm 
156, 204, 209, 
211, 212, 214, 
216, 217, 220- 
222 
Cessna 
Everest IRT, IFOV: 15° 
1 
8-13 pm 
Cessna 
Multispectral Video Camera, IFOV: 15° 
6 
0.48-0.90 pm 
Cessna 
Thermal Infrared Scanner, IFOV: 2.4 
mrad 
1 
8-12 pm 
Aero 
Commander 
Multifrequency Microwave Radiometer 
3 
2.25-27 cm 
211, 212, 214, 
215, 216, 217, 
218, 221 
Aero 
Commander 
Pulsed Gallium-Arsenide Diode Laser 
Profiler, EFOV: 1 mrad 
1 
0.904 pm 
Acquired in 1991 
with similar 
conditions. 
C-130 
NS001 Thematic Mapper Simulator, 
IFOV: 2.5 mrad 
8 
0.46-12.3 pm 
212, 213, 214, 
216, 217, 220- 
222 
C-130 
TIMS Thermal Imaging Multispectral 
Scanner, IFOV: 2.5 mrad 
6 
8.2-11.7 pm 
C-130 
PBMR Push Broom Microwave 
Radiometer, IFOV: 17° 
1 
21 cm 
SPOT-2 
High Resolution Visible (HRV) Camera, 
Resolution: 20 m 
3 
0.50-0.89 pm 
156, 252 
Landsat-5 
Thematic Mapper (TM), Resolution 30 
m Reflected and 120 m Emitted 
7 
0.45-12.5 pm 
156, 252 
NOAA-11 
AVHRR-LAC, 1.1 km 
AVHRR-GAC, 4.5 km 
5 
0.58-12.5 pm 
156, 208, 209, 
216, 221 
GOES-7 
Resolution: 8 km 
2 
0.55-12.5 pm 
156, 207-222