0.1 degree soil moisture retrievals from passive microwave observations

Date

2012-04-22

Author

Parinussa, Robert
Richard De, Jeu
Yılmaz, Mustafa Tuğrul
Anderson, Martha
Hain, Chris

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

179
views

0
downloads

For several years passive microwave observations have been used to retrieve surface soil moisture from the Earth's surface. Satellite sensors such as the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) have been used for this purpose using their multi-channel observations. These soil moisture retrievals are routinely available in a relatively coarse spatial resolution (~0.25 degree), which allows for studies and applications on a global and continental scale. The use of such surface soil moisture retrievals for smaller areas, e.g. regional scale or watershed studies, is generally limited due to the coarse scale of the native soil moisture product. In response to this challenge a method to enhance the spatial resolution of surface soil moisture retrievals from these passive microwave observations was developed. The Smoothing Filter-based Intensity Modulation (SFIM) technique was applied to AMSR-E observations in combination with the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) to derive a 0.1 degree soil moisture product over Southern France and the Iberian Peninsula. The results were compared with soil moisture fields from a Thermal Infrared observation based model (ALEXI). The spatial resolution of ALEXI-based soil moisture retrievals is typically on the order of 3-10 km2, which allows a spatial comparison between ALEXI and AMSR-E at both native- (~0.25 degree) and downscaled (0.1 degree) spatial resolution. Additionally the remotely sensed soil moisture products, at respectively coarse and high spatial resolution, were compared to in situ observations over the Remedhus and SmosMania soil moisture network. The results revealed no significant loss in soil moisture retrieval skill in the 0.1 degree soil moisture product as compared to the original 0.25 degree product and demonstrated a better spatial correspondence between ALEXI. Based on this study the applied SFIM technique seems to be a promising approach to downscale passive microwave observations, not only for AMSR-E but also for other (future) satellite missions like GCOM/W-AMSR 2, GPM and SMAP. However, more research is still needed to determine the full potential of this new method.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/78157
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012EGUGA..14.3222P/abstract

Conference Name

EGU General Assembly 2012 (22 - 27 Nisan 2012)

Collections

Department of Civil Engineering, Conference / Seminar

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

The impact of land surface temperature on soil moisture anomaly detection from passive microwave observations Parinussa, R.M.; Holmes, T.R.H.; Yılmaz, Mustafa Tuğrul; Crow, W.T. (2011-11-01) For several years passive microwave observations have been used to retrieve soil moisture from the Earth’s surface. Low frequency observations have the most sensitivity to soil moisture, therefore the current Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and future Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) satellite missions observe the Earth’s surface in the L-band frequency. In the past, several satellite sensors such as the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) and WindSat have been used to retriev...
Remote sensing of canopy water content during SMEX'04 and SMEX'05 using shortwave-infrared reflectances Hunt Jr., E. Raymond; Yılmaz, Mustafa Tuğrul; Jackson, Thomas J. (2008-12-01) The Soil Moisture Experiments in 2004 and 2005 were conducted to validate algorithms for soil moisture retrievals. One of the key parameters for determination of soil moisture from microwave sensors is the vegetation water content of canopy and stems. We tested if canopy water content could be determined from reflectances in the shortwave-infrared and if the amount of canopy water content was related to the total vegetation water content by allometric equations. The normalized difference infrared index (NDI...
Comparison of vegetation water content estimates from WindSat and MODIS Hunt Jr., E. Raymond; Li, Li; Yılmaz, Mustafa Tuğrul; Jackson, Thomas J. (2010-12-01) Retrieval of soil moisture content from microwave sensors also returns an estimate of vegetation water content. Remotely sensed indices from optical sensors can be used to estimate canopy water content. For corn and soybean in central Iowa, there are allometric relationships between canopy water content and vegetation water content. The Normalized Difference Infrared Index from MODIS was used to estimate vegetation water content. We compared independent estimates of vegetation water content from WindSat and...
Opportunities and challenges in using soil moisture from cosmic ray neutron sensing for rainfall-runoff modelling Duygu, Mustafa Berk; Akyürek, Sevda Zuhal; Department of Civil Engineering (2021-9-08) Retrieving or estimating soil moisture is one of the most important elements of hydrology, since most of the hydrological studies consider the absence (drought) or excessiveness (flood) of water stored in the soil. Water stored in a basin has a very strong relation with the amount of soil moisture thus knowing the soil moisture significantly facilitates the estimation of other parameters of the hydrological cycle. For agricultural decision making systems, it is also vital to know whether the plants receive ...
Enhancing model-based land surface temperature estimates using multiplatform microwave observations Holmes, Thomas R. H.; Crow, Wade T.; Yılmaz, Mustafa Tuğrul; Jackson, Thomas J.; Basara, Jeffrey B. (2013-01-01) Land surface temperature plays an important role in surface processes and is a key input for physically based retrieval algorithms of soil moisture and evaporation. This study presents a framework for using independent estimates of land surface temperature from five microwave satellite sensors to improve the accuracy of land surface temperature output from a numerical weather prediction system in an off-line (postprocessing) analysis. First, structural differences in timing and amplitude of the temperature ...

Citation Formats

R. Parinussa, J. Richard De, M. T. Yılmaz, M. Anderson, and C. Hain, “0.1 degree soil moisture retrievals from passive microwave observations,” presented at the EGU General Assembly 2012 (22 - 27 Nisan 2012), Vienna, Austria, 2012, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/78157.