PRESENTLY RESEARCHERS AT GODDARD ARE PLANNING TO DEVELOP A PASSIVE SYSTEM HAVING A FREQUENCY RANGE OF 500 TO 1500 MHZ. THE SYSTEM REQUIRES A BROADBAND ANTENNA TO COVER THE COMPLETE DESIRED FREQUENCY RANGE. THEY WILL TEST THE SYSTEM IN A FIELD EXPERIMENT IN THE SUMMER OF 2019. COMRAD THE NASA/GW L BAND RADAR/RADIOMETER SYSTEM CAN BE TASKED TO VERIFY THAT THE BROADBAND SENSOR IS GIVING CORRECT BRIGHTNESS TEMPERATURES AT L BAND. BECAUSE OF BUDGETARY LIMITATIONS AND THE HIGH COST OF A BROADBAND ANTENNA A MODIFIED PLAN HAS EVOLVED. A CHEAPER LOG PERIODIC P BAND ANTENNA WILL BE EMPLOYED IN THE FIELD EXPERIMENT WITH COMRAD PROVIDING THE L BAND MEASUREMENTS AND WILL GIVE BOTH P AND L BAND DATA TO TEST INVERSION SCHEMES FOR ESTIMATING GEOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS LIKE RZSM. RFI MEASUREMENTS AT THE EXPERIMENT SITE HAVE BEEN CONDUCTED. AS A RESULT OF THESE MEASUREMENTS IT IS DETERMINED THAT THE SPECTRAL BAND HAVING FREQUENCY RANGES OF 490-529 MHZ 691-720 MHZ AND 781-850 MHZ ARE QUIET ENOUGH TO CONDUCT A PASSIVE EXPERIMENT. A P BAND RADIOMETER THAT IS CAPABLE OF MEASUREMENTS IN THESE THREE FREQUENCY BANDS IS PRESENTLY BEING DESIGNED. THE RFI MEASUREMENTS ARE FOR A GROUND-BASED EXPERIMENT. AIRCRAFT RFI IS MORE EXTENSIVE AND WILL REQUIRE A MORE VERSATILE RADIOMETER. IT IS PROPOSED THAT DURING THE PERIOD PRECEDING THE SUMMER OF 2019 A GW STUDENT WILL LEARN HOW TO OPERATE THE COMRAD SYSTEM AND LEARN HOW TO CALIBRATE THE H AND V RADIOMETERS. THIS STUDENT TOGETHER WITH THE PI WILL BE PREPARED TO PARTICIPATE IN THE 2019 FIELD TESTS. IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT THE P AND L BAND RADIOMETERS WILL BE LOCATED BETWEEN A BARE AND A VEGETATED FIELD. GW WILL ALSO MAKE DIELECTRIC MEASUREMENTS OF THE VEGETATION OVER THE GROWING SEASON. IT IS ALSO ANTICIPATED THAT THE VEGETATION CHOSEN WILL HAVE SUFFICIENTLY LARGE BIOMASS TO OBSERVE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE P AND L BAND MICROWAVE RESPONSES. P VS L BAND RESULTS COULD THEN DEMONSTRATE A SUPERIOR ABILITY OF P BAND SIGNALS TO PENETRATE VEGETATION.