This research examines the potential to use passive microwave remote sensing for measuring
soil moisture extremes that impact agricultural areas in Canada. A validation was made of three
passive microwave remote sensing soil moisture data sets, with weekly averaged values from
the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) applied to AMSR‐E C/X‐Band data providing the
most accurate results (root mean squared error of 5 to 10%). A further evaluation of this data set
against a spatially distributed in situ soil moisture network in Alberta suggests that this data set
may be less accurate in regions where dense vegetation or open water is present, particularly on
the northern edges of the Canadian agricultural extent. A method to derive soil moisture
anomalies was developed that uses homogenous regions to spatially aggregate soil moisture
statistics to compensate for a short satellite data record. It was found that these anomalies can
be estimated with errors of less than 5% when these regions are 15 pixels or more over a seven
year time period. Surface soil moisture anomalies from LPRM showed weak but significant
relationships to precipitation based drought indices, suggesting promise for using these
anomalies for wider soil moisture extremes monitoring. Soil moisture anomalies from CLASS and
in situ networks showed inconsistencies with LPRM anomalies in how they capture soil moisture
conditions that are relevant to agricultural yield.. These data sets overall show that this
approach to quantifying extremes has potential, but improvement to soil moisture retrieval from
LPRM and CLASS, and an integration of the information they provide are needed to optimize
these data sets for agricultural monitoring.