Sensitivity to soil moisture by applying a model-based polarimetric decomposition to a time-series of airborne radar L-band data over an agricultural area

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giovanni Anconitano ◽  
Marco Lavalle ◽  
Elena Arabini ◽  
Nazzareno Pierdicca
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Agricultural Area ◽  
Airborne Radar ◽  
Model Based ◽  
L Band

scholarly journals Field-Scale Soil Moisture Retrieval Using PALSAR-2 Polarimetric Decomposition and Machine Learning

Agronomy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 35
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Huang ◽  
Beth Ziniti ◽  
Michael H. Cosh ◽  
Michele Reba ◽  
Jinfei Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Canopy Cover ◽  
The United States ◽  
Optical Data ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Model Based ◽  
Key Indicator ◽  
Ground Measurement ◽  
L Band

Soil moisture is a key indicator to assess cropland drought and irrigation status as well as forecast production. Compared with the optical data which are obscured by the crop canopy cover, the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is an efficient tool to detect the surface soil moisture under the vegetation cover due to its strong penetration capability. This paper studies the soil moisture retrieval using the L-band polarimetric Phased Array-type L-band SAR 2 (PALSAR-2) data acquired over the study region in Arkansas in the United States. Both two-component model-based decomposition (SAR data alone) and machine learning (SAR + optical indices) methods are tested and compared in this paper. Validation using independent ground measurement shows that the both methods achieved a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of less than 10 (vol.%), while the machine learning methods outperform the model-based decomposition, achieving an RMSE of 7.70 (vol.%) and R2 of 0.60.

Combining Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 observations for soil moisture retrieval

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Balenzano ◽  
Giuseppe Satalino ◽  
Francesco Lovergine ◽  
Davide Palmisano ◽  
Francesco Mattia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Earth Science ◽  
Observation System ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Error Characterization ◽  
L Band

<p>One of the limitations of presently available Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) surface soil moisture (SSM) products is their moderated temporal resolution (e.g., 3-4 days) that is non optimal for several applications, as most user requirements point to a temporal resolution of 1-2 days or less. A possible path to tackle this issue is to coordinate multi-mission SAR acquisitions with a view to the future Copernicus Sentinel-1 (C&D and Next Generation) and L-band Radar Observation System for Europe (ROSE-L).</p><p>In this respect, the recent agreement between the Japanese (JAXA) and European (ESA) Space Agencies on the use of SAR Satellites in Earth Science and Applications provides a framework to develop and validate multi-frequency and multi-platform SAR SSM products. In 2019 and 2020, to support insights on the interoperability between C- and L-band SAR observations for SSM retrieval, Sentinel-1 and ALOS-2 systematic acquisitions over the TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories) Selhausen (Germany) and Apulian Tavoliere (Italy) cal/val sites were gathered. Both sites are well documented and equipped with hydrologic networks.</p><p>The objective of this study is to investigate the integration of multi-frequency SAR measurements for a consistent and harmonized SSM retrieval throughout the error characterization of a combined C- and L-band SSM product. To this scope, time series of Sentinel-1 IW and ALOS-2 FBD data acquired over the two sites will be analysed. The short time change detection (STCD) algorithm, developed, implemented and recently assessed on Sentinel-1 data [e.g., Balenzano et al., 2020; Mattia et al., 2020], will be tailored to the ALOS-2 data. Then, the time series of SAR SSM maps from each SAR system will be derived separately and aggregated in an interleaved SSM product. Furthermore, it will be compared against in situ SSM data systematically acquired by the ground stations deployed at both sites. The study will assess the interleaved SSM product and evaluate the homogeneous quality of C- and L-band SAR SSM maps.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>Balenzano. A., et al., “Sentinel-1 soil moisture at 1km resolution: a validation study”, submitted to Remote Sensing of Environment (2020).</p><p>Mattia, F., A. Balenzano, G. Satalino, F. Lovergine, A. Loew, et al., “ESA SEOM Land project on Exploitation of Sentinel-1 for Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval at High Resolution,” final report, contract number 4000118762/16/I-NB, 2020.</p>

A Time-Series Approach to Estimating Soil Moisture From Vegetated Surfaces Using L-Band Radar Backscatter

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 3186-3193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey D. Ouellette ◽  
Joel T. Johnson ◽  
Anna Balenzano ◽  
Francesco Mattia ◽  
Giuseppe Satalino ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Radar Backscatter ◽  
Time Series Approach ◽  
L Band

scholarly journals Brief communication: Mapping Greenland's perennial firn aquifers using enhanced-resolution L-band brightness temperature image time series

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (9) ◽  
pp. 2809-2817
Author(s):  
Julie Z. Miller ◽  
David G. Long ◽  
Kenneth C. Jezek ◽  
Joel T. Johnson ◽  
Mary J. Brodzik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Brightness Temperature ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Enhanced Resolution ◽  
L Band ◽  
Coherent Radar

Abstract. Enhanced-resolution L-band brightness temperature (TB) image time series generated from observations collected over the Greenland Ice Sheet by NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite are used to map Greenland's perennial firn aquifers from space. Exponentially decreasing L-band TB signatures are correlated with perennial firn aquifer areas identified via the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) that was flown by NASA's Operation IceBridge (OIB) campaign. An empirical algorithm to map extent is developed by fitting these signatures to a set of sigmoidal curves. During the spring of 2016, perennial firn aquifer areas are found to extend over ∼66 000 km2.

Towards an improved temporal stability of CCI+SSS time series

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Perrot ◽  
Jacqueline Boutin ◽  
Jean Luc Vergely ◽  
Frédéric Rouffi ◽  
Adrien Martin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Dielectric Constant ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Sea Surface Salinity ◽  
Surface Salinity ◽  
L Band ◽  
Band Radiometer

<p>This study is performed in the frame of the European Space Agency (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI+) for Sea Surface Salinity (SSS), which aims at generating global SSS fields from all available satellite L-band radiometer measurements over the longest possible period with a great stability. By combining SSS from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity, SMOS, Aquarius and the Soil Moisture Active Passive, SMAP missions, CCI+SSS fields (Boutin et al. 2020) are the only one to provide a 10 year time series of satellite salinity with such quality: global rms difference of weekly 25x25km<span>2 </span>CCI+SSS with respect to in situ Argo SSS of 0.17 pss, correlation coefficient of 0.97 (see https://pimep.ifremer.fr/diffusion/analyses/mdb-database/GO/cci-l4-esa-merged-oi-v2.31-7dr/argo/report/pimep-mdb-report_GO_cci-l4-esa-merged-oi-v2.31-7dr_argo_20201215.pdf). Nevertheless, we found that some systematic biases remained. In this presentation, we will show how they will be reduced in the next CCI+SSS version.</p><p>The key satellite mission ensuring the longest time period, since 2010, at global scale, is SMOS. We implemented a re-processing of the whole SMOS dataset by changing some key points. Firstly we replace the Klein and Swift (1977) dielectric constant parametrization by the new Boutin et al. (2020) one. Secondly we change the reference dataset used to perform a vicarious calibration over the south east Pacific Ocean (the so-called Ocean Target Transformation), by using Argo interpolated fields (ISAS, Gaillard et al. 2016) contemporaneous to the satellite measurements instead of the World Ocean Atlas climatology. And thirdly the auxiliary data (wind, SST, atmospheric parameters) used as priors in the retrieval scheme, which come in the original SMOS processing from the ECMWF forecast model were replaced by ERA5 reanalysis.</p><p>Our results are showing a quantitative improvement in the stability of the SMOS CCI+SSS with respect to in situ measurements for all the period as well as a decrease of the spread of the difference between SMOS and in situ salinity measurements.</p><p>Bibliography:</p><p>J. Boutin et al. (2020), Correcting Sea Surface Temperature Spurious Effects in Salinity Retrieved From Spaceborne L-Band Radiometer Measurements, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2020.3030488.</p><p>F. Gaillard et al. (2016), In Situ–Based Reanalysis of the Global Ocean Temperature and Salinity with ISAS: Variability of the Heat Content and Steric Height, Journal of Climate, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 1305-1323, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0028.1.</p><p>L. Klein and C. Swift (1977), An improved model for the dielectric constant of sea water at microwave frequencies, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. <span>104-111, </span>doi: 10.1109/JOE.1977.1145319.</p><p>Data reference:</p><p>J. Boutin et al. (2020): ESA Sea Surface Salinity Climate Change Initiative (Sea_Surface_Salinity_cci): Weekly sea surface salinity product, v2.31, for 2010 to 2019. Centre for Environmental Data Analysis. https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/eacb7580e1b54afeaabb0fd2b0a53828</p>

Towards the removal of model bias from ESA CCI SM by using an L-band scaling reference

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rémi Madelon ◽  
Nemesio Rodriguez-Fernandez ◽  
Robin Van Der Shalie ◽  
Yann Kerr ◽  
Tracy Scalon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
In Situ Measurements ◽  
Time Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Spatial Coverage ◽  
L Band ◽  
Better Than

<p>Merging data from different instruments is required to construct long time data records of soil moisture (SM). This is the goal of projects such as the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) for SM (Gruber et al., 2019), which uses both active and passive microwave sensors. Currently, the GLDAS v2.1 model is used as reference to re-scale active and passive time series by matching their Cumulative Density Function (CDF) to that of the model. Removing the dependency on models is important, in particular for data assimilation applications into hydrological or climate models, and it has been proposed (Van der Schalie et al., 2018) to use L-band data from one of the two instruments specifically designed to measure SM, ESA Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellites, as reference to re-scale other time series.<br>To investigate this approach, AMSR-2 SM time series obtained from C1-, C2- and X-band observations using LPRM (Land Parameter Retrieval Model) were re-scaled by CDF-matching (Brocca et al., 2011) using different SMAP and SMOS official (SMAP L2 V005, SMOS L3 V300, SMOS NRT V100&V200) and research (SMOS IC V103) SM products as well as the SMAP and SMOS LPRM v6 SM data used by the ESA CCI. The time series re-scaled using L-band remote sensing data were compared to those re-scaled using GLDAS and were evaluated against in situ measurements at several hundred sites retrieved from the International Soil Moisture Network (Dorigo et al., 2011). The results were analyzed as a function of the land cover class and the Koppen-Geiger climate classification.<br>Overall, AMSR-2 time series re-scaled using SMAP L2, SMAP LPRM and SMOS IC data sets as reference gave the best correlations with respect to in situ measurements, similar to those obtained by the time series re-scaled using GLDAS and slightly better than those of the original AMSR-2 time series. These results imply that different SMAP and SMOS products could actually be used to replace GLDAS as reference for the re-scaling of other sensors time series within the ESA CCI. However, one must bear in mind that this study is limited to the re-scaling of AMSR-2 data at a few hundred sites.<br>For a more detailed assessment of the L-band data set to be used for a global re-scaling, it is necessary to investigate other effects such as the spatial coverage or the time series length. SMAP spatial coverage is better than that of SMOS in regions affected by radio frequency interference. In contrast, the length of SMAP time series can be too short to capture the long term SM variability for climate applications in some regions. The CDF of SMOS time series computed from the date of SMAP launch is significantly different to those of the full length SMOS time series in some regions of the Globe. Possible ways of using a coherent SMAP/SMOS L-band data set will be discussed.</p>

scholarly journals Brief communication: Mapping Greenland’s perennial firn aquifers using enhanced- resolution L-band brightness temperature image time series

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Z. Miller ◽  
David G. Long ◽  
Kenneth .C Jezek ◽  
Joel T. Johnson ◽  
Mary J. Brodzik ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Time Series ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Brightness Temperature ◽  
Ice Sheets ◽  
Ice Sheet ◽  
Greenland Ice Sheet ◽  
Enhanced Resolution ◽  
L Band ◽  
Coherent Radar

Abstract. Enhanced-resolution L-band brightness temperature (TB) image time series collected over the Greenland ice sheet by NASA’s Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite are used to map Greenland’s perennial firn aquifers from space. Exponentially decreasing L-band TB signatures are correlated with perennial firn aquifer areas identified via the Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets (CReSIS) Multi-Channel Coherent Radar Depth Sounder (MCoRDS) flown by NASA’s Operation IceBridge (OIB) campaign. An empirical algorithm to map extent is developed by fitting these signatures to a set of sigmoidal curves. During the spring of 2016, perennial firn aquifer areas are found to extend over ~66,000 km2.

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