Potential for High Resolution Systematic Global Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval via Change Detection Using Sentinel-1

Author(s):  
Michael Hornacek ◽  
Wolfgang Wagner ◽  
Daniel Sabel ◽  
Hong-Linh Truong ◽  
Paul Snoeij ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinit Sehgal ◽  
Nandita Gaur ◽  
Binayak P. Mohanty

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 837-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randal D. Koster ◽  
Rolf H. Reichle ◽  
Sarith P. P. Mahanama

Abstract NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provides global surface soil moisture retrievals with a revisit time of 2–3 days and a latency of 24 h. Here, to enhance the utility of the SMAP data, an approach is presented for improving real-time soil moisture estimates (nowcasts) and for forecasting soil moisture several days into the future. The approach, which involves using an estimate of loss processes (evaporation and drainage) and precipitation to evolve the most recent SMAP retrieval forward in time, is evaluated against subsequent SMAP retrievals themselves. The nowcast accuracy over the continental United States is shown to be markedly higher than that achieved with the simple yet common persistence approach. The accuracy of soil moisture forecasts, which rely on precipitation forecasts rather than on precipitation measurements, is reduced relative to nowcast accuracy but is still significantly higher than that obtained through persistence.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 1119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jovan Kovačević ◽  
Željko Cvijetinović ◽  
Nikola Stančić ◽  
Nenad Brodić ◽  
Dragan Mihajlović

ESA CCI SM products have provided remotely-sensed surface soil moisture (SSM) content with the best spatial and temporal coverage thus far, although its output spatial resolution of 25 km is too coarse for many regional and local applications. The downscaling methodology presented in this paper improves ESA CCI SM spatial resolution to 1 km using two-step approach. The first step is used as a data engineering tool and its output is used as an input for the Random forest model in the second step. In addition to improvements in terms of spatial resolution, the approach also considers the problem of data gaps. The filling of these gaps is the initial step of the procedure, which in the end produces a continuous product in both temporal and spatial domains. The methodology uses combined active and passive ESA CCI SM products in addition to in situ soil moisture observations and the set of auxiliary downscaling predictors. The research tested several variants of Random forest models to determine the best combination of ESA CCI SM products. The conclusion is that synergic use of all ESA CCI SM products together with the auxiliary datasets in the downscaling procedure provides better results than using just one type of ESA CCI SM product alone. The methodology was applied for obtaining SSM maps for the area of California, USA during 2016. The accuracy of tested models was validated using five-fold cross-validation against in situ data and the best variation of model achieved RMSE, R2 and MAE of 0.0518 m3/m3, 0.7312 and 0.0374 m3/m3, respectively. The methodology proved to be useful for generating high-resolution SSM products, although additional improvements are necessary.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nemesio Rodríguez-Fernández ◽  
Yann Kerr ◽  
Robin van der Schalie ◽  
Amen Al-Yaari ◽  
Jean-Pierre Wigneron ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Piles ◽  
Joaquim Ballabrera-Poy ◽  
Joaquín Muñoz-Sabater

Soil moisture observations are expected to play an important role in monitoring global climate trends. However, measuring soil moisture is challenging because of its high spatial and temporal variability. Point-scale in-situ measurements are scarce and, excluding model-based estimates, remote sensing remains the only practical way to observe soil moisture at a global scale. The ESA-led Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, launched in 2009, measures the Earth’s surface natural emissivity at L-band and provides highly accurate soil moisture information with a 3-day revisiting time. Using the first six full annual cycles of SMOS measurements (June 2010–June 2016), this study investigates the temporal variability of global surface soil moisture. The soil moisture time series are decomposed into a linear trend, interannual, seasonal, and high-frequency residual (i.e., subseasonal) components. The relative distribution of soil moisture variance among its temporal components is first illustrated at selected target sites representative of terrestrial biomes with distinct vegetation type and seasonality. A comparison with GLDAS-Noah and ERA5 modeled soil moisture at these sites shows general agreement in terms of temporal phase except in areas with limited temporal coverage in winter season due to snow. A comparison with ground-based estimates at one of the sites shows good agreement of both temporal phase and absolute magnitude. A global assessment of the dominant features and spatial distribution of soil moisture variability is then provided. Results show that, despite still being a relatively short data set, SMOS data provides coherent and reliable variability patterns at both seasonal and interannual scales. Subseasonal components are characterized as white noise. The observed linear trends, based upon one strong El Niño event in 2016, are consistent with the known El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) teleconnections. This work provides new insight into recent changes in surface soil moisture and can help further our understanding of the terrestrial branch of the water cycle and of global patterns of climate anomalies. Also, it is an important support to multi-decadal soil moisture observational data records, hydrological studies and land data assimilation projects using remotely sensed observations.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Ouaadi ◽  
Jamal Ezzahar ◽  
Saïd Khabba ◽  
Salah Er-Raki ◽  
Adnane Chakir ◽  
...  

Abstract. A better understanding of the hydrological functioning of irrigated crops using remote sensing observations is of prime importance in the semi-arid areas where the water resources are limited. Radar observations, available at high resolution and revisit time since the launch of Sentinel-1 in 2014, have shown great potential for the monitoring of the water content of the upper soil and of the canopy. In this paper, a complete set of data for radar signal analysis is shared to the scientific community for the first time to our knowledge. The data set is composed of Sentinel-1 products and in situ measurements of soil and vegetation variables collected during three agricultural seasons over drip-irrigated winter wheat in the Haouz plain in Morocco. The in situ data gathers soil measurements (time series of half-hourly surface soil moisture, surface roughness and agricultural practices) and vegetation measurements collected every week/two weeks including above-ground fresh and dry biomasses, vegetation water content based on destructive measurements, cover fraction, leaf area index and plant height. Radar data are the backscattering coefficient and the interferometric coherence derived from Sentinel-1 GRDH (Ground Range Detected High resolution) and SLC (Single Look Complex) products, respectively. The normalized difference vegetation index derived from Sentinel-2 data based on Level-2A (surface reflectance and cloud mask) atmospheric effects-corrected products is also provided. This database, which is the first of its kind made available in open access, is described here comprehensively in order to help the scientific community to evaluate and to develop new or existing remote sensing algorithms for monitoring wheat canopy under semi-arid conditions. The data set is particularly relevant for the development of radar applications including surface soil moisture and vegetation parameters retrieval using either physically based or empirical approaches such as machine and deep learning algorithms. The database is archived in the DataSuds repository and is freely-accessible via the DOI: https://doi.org/10.23708/8D6WQC (Ouaadi et al., 2020a).


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document