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Airborne microwave radiometric measurements in the framework of the HAPEX-Sahel Experiment were performed by the Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) and the PORTOS radiometer. The flights of both radiometers produced an original set of data covering the 1.4-90 GHz range of frequency. The East and West Central Super Sites were the areas most intensively observed by the microwave radiometers. Over those sites, several brightness temperature (T-B) maps are available at seven dates distributed over a 1 month period in the middle of the rainy season. A comparison of the two radiometers demonstrates their radiometric quality and the precision of the localization of the microwave observations. At 1.4 GHz, the vegetation had very little effect on the soil microwave emission. Maps of soil moisture were developed using a single linear relationship between T-B and the surface soil moisture. There is an important spatial heterogeneity in the soil moisture distribution, which is explained by both the soil moisture hydrodynamic properties and the localization of the precipitation fields. At 5.05 GHz, the vegetation must be accounted for to infer soil moisture from the microwave observations. A method based on a simple radiative transfer model and on microwave data has shown encouraging results. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.