WHEN WATER IN VARIOUS COMPONENTS OF THE LANDSCAPE FREEZES ITS MOVEMENT IS LARGELY CURTAILED WITH IMPACTS ON CLIMATE HYDROLOGY ECOLOGY AND BIOGEOCHEMICAL PROCESSES AND HAS A LARGE IMPACT ON THE DEVELOPMENT AND ABLATION OF SNOWPACK. PASSIVE AND ACTIVE MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING ALLOWS NEAR REAL-TIME ALL-WEATHER MONITORING OF THE LANDSCAPE FREEZE/THAW (FT) STATE. FT IS FAR FROM A BINARY LANDSCAPE SWITCH BUT RATHER IS VERY COMPLEX SHOWING EXTREME HETEROGENEITY ACROSS LANDSCAPE ELEMENTS AND WITH DEPTH INTO THE SOIL SNOW AND VEGETATION. TO ANALYZE HOW FRACTIONAL FT EFFECTS LANDSCAPE PROCESSES WE PROPOSE TO EXTENSIVELY EVALUATE EXISTING MICROWAVE SATELLITE PRODUCTS AS WELL AS FRACTIONAL FT DYNAMICS AS PART OF THE NEXT GENERATION COLD LANDS PROCESSES EXPERIMENT (NG-CLPX) TO EXPLORE THE POTENTIAL OF MOVING BEYOND BINARY FT PRODUCTS TOWARDS AN ENHANCED FRACTIONAL FT ANALYSIS. WE PROPOSE THE COMPREHENSIVE EVALUATION OF EXISTING FT PRODUCTS AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW FRACTIONAL FT ANALYSIS USING TARGETED AIRBORNE AND IN-SITU FIELD CAMPAIGNS TO BE PLANNED AS PART OF THE NG-CLPX. USING THESE IN-SITU DATA WE WILL ALSO EXAMINE THE IMPACT OF SNOW VEGETATION AND TOPOGRAPHY ON THE FT UNCERTAINTY. STARTING FROM THIS ANALYSIS WE WILL FURTHER EXPLORE THE POTENTIAL FOR MOVING BEYOND CURRENT BINARY FT PRODUCTS TOWARDS A FRACTIONAL FT ANALYSIS THAT BETTER DESCRIBES THE INTERMEDIATE PHASE BETWEEN FROZEN AND THAWED LANDSCAPES. MOST IMPORTANTLY WE WILL ACTIVELY PARTICIPATE IN THE PLANNING OF NG-CLPX TOWARDS BREAKTHROUGHS IN LARGE-SCALE OBSERVATION OF HYDROLOGIC PROPERTIES INCLUDING SNOW CHARACTERISTICS SOIL MOISTURE THE EXTENT OF FROZEN SOILS AND THE TRANSITION BETWEEN FROZEN AND THAWED SOIL CONDITIONS. HAVING PARTICIPATED IN THE CLPX-1 SGP97 AND MANITOBA FIELD CAMPAIGNS THE PI HAS EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN LEADING PLANNING AND EXECUTING LARGE FIELD CAMPAIGNS THAT WILL BE VALUABLE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF NG-CLPX. BY PROPOSING A BREAKTHROUGH ADVANCE IN LARGE-SCALE LANDSCAPE FT OBSERVATIONS THIS PROPOSAL IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIVE TO THE 2016 NASA TERRESTRIAL HYDROLOGY PROGRAM SOLICITATION. SPECIFICALLY THIS PROJECT WILL (A) ANALYZE EXISTING FT DATA AND/OR MODELING STUDIES TO DETERMINE OPTIMUM IN SITU AND AIRCRAFT OBSERVATION STRATEGIES AND (B) PLAN AN INITIAL APPROXIMATION OF THE NECESSARY IN SITU AND/OR AIRBORNE SAMPLING DESIGN INCLUDING THE NUMBER OF OBSERVATIONS AND NECESSARY HUMAN AND INSTRUMENT RESOURCES.