TROPICAL PEATLANDS IN EQUATORIAL SOUTHEAST ASIA ARE A PERSISTENT CARBON SINK THAT PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN THE GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE. HOWEVER OVER THE PAST 30 YEARS AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT HAS SPURRED WIDESPREAD DEFORESTATION AND LOWERING OF THE WATER TABLE IN PEATLANDS LEADING TO MASSIVE CARBON EMISSIONS AND DESTRUCTIVE FIRES DURING DROUGHT YEARS. TO INVESTIGATE THESE ISSUES AT REGIONAL SCALES I PROPOSE TO MEASURE SOIL MOISTURE USING A MULTI TEMPORAL-DUAL CHANNEL ALGORITHM APPLIED TO DATA FROM THE NASA SOIL MOISTURE ACTIVE PASSIVE (SMAP) SATELLITE. PRELIMINARY ERROR ESTIMATES USING TRIPLE COLLOCATION ON THESE RETRIEVALS DEMONSTRATE THAT CONTRARY TO POPULAR WISDOM SOIL MOISTURE CAN BE MEASURED ACCURATELY IN TROPICAL PEATLANDS. LEVERAGING A ONE-TO-ONE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOIL MOISTURE AND WATER TABLE DEPTH I FURTHER PROPOSE TO ESTIMATE CARBON EMISSIONS FROM SOIL MOISTURE OBSERVATIONS. I WILL THEN CATEGORIZE CARBON FLUX ESTIMATES BY LAND COVER TYPE ALLOWING FOR ANALYSIS OF PEATLAND DEGRADATION PATTERNS WITH IMPLICATIONS FOR LAND MANAGEMENT. SOIL MOISTURE IS ALSO A DIRECT MEASURE OF PEAT FLAMMABILITY AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS DEMONSTRATE THAT SOIL MOISTURE MEASURED UP TO 30-DAYS PRIOR CAN SERVE AS A PREDICTOR FOR DRY SEASON BURNED AREA. I WILL USE SOIL MOISTURE ALONG WITH OTHER CLIMATOLOGICAL FEATURES SUCH AS PRECIPITATION AS TRAINING INPUTS TO A BURNED AREA MODEL. SUCH A MODEL HAS THE POTENTIAL TO IMPROVE UPON EXISTING FIRE RISK INDICES AND WOULD ALLOW FOR IMPROVED ALLOCATION OF FIRE MANAGEMENT RESOURCES. THUS THIS PROJECT WILL MAKE USE OF NASAS UNIQUE EARTH OBSERVING CAPABILITIES AND FURTHER THE USE OF EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE RESEARCH TO INFORM THE DECISIONS OF REGIONAL GOVERNMENTS AND BENEFIT SOCIETY.