scholarly journals Rebuilding a Microwave Soil Moisture Product Using Random Forest Adopting AMSR-E/AMSR2 Brightness Temperature and SMAP over the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 683 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuquan Qu ◽  
Zhongli Zhu ◽  
Linna Chai ◽  
Shaomin Liu ◽  
Carsten Montzka ◽  
...  

Time series of soil moisture (SM) data in the Qinghai–Tibet plateau (QTP) covering a period longer than one decade are important for understanding the dynamics of land surface–atmosphere feedbacks in the global climate system. However, most existing SM products have a relatively short time series or show low performance over the challenging terrain of the QTP. In order to improve the spaceborne monitoring in this area, this study presents a random forest (RF) method to rebuild a high-accuracy SM product over the QTP from 19 June 2002 to 31 March 2015 by adopting the advanced microwave scanning radiometer for earth observing system (AMSR-E), and the advanced microwave scanning radiometer 2 (AMSR2), and tracking brightness temperatures with latitude and longitude using the International Geosphere–Biospheres Programme (IGBP) classification data, the digital elevation model (DEM) and the day of the year (DOY) as spatial predictors. Brightness temperature products (from frequencies 10.7 GHz, 18.7 GHz and 36.5 GHz) of AMSR2 were used to train the random forest model on two years of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) SM data. The simulated SM values were compared with third year SMAP data and in situ stations. The results show that the RF model has high reliability as compared to SMAP, with a high correlation (R = 0.95) and low values of root mean square error (RMSE = 0.03 m3/m3) and mean absolute percent error (MAPE = 19%). Moreover, the random forest soil moisture (RFSM) results agree well with the data from five in situ networks, with mean values of R = 0.75, RMSE = 0.06 m3/m3, and bias = −0.03 m3/m3 over the whole year and R = 0.70, RMSE = 0.07 m3/m3, and bias = −0.05 m3/m3 during the unfrozen seasons. In order to test its performance throughout the whole region of QTP, the three-cornered hat (TCH) method based on removing common signals from observations and then calculating the uncertainties is applied. The results indicate that RFSM has the smallest relative error in 56% of the region, and it performs best relative to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), and European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI) project. The spatial distribution shows that RFSM has a similar spatial trend as GLDAS and ESA CCI, but RFSM exhibits a more distinct spatial distribution and responds to precipitation more effectively than GLDAS and ESA CCI. Moreover, a trend analysis shows that the temporal variation of RFSM agrees well with precipitation and LST (land surface temperature), with a dry trend in most regions of QTP and a wet trend in few north, southeast and southwest regions of QTP. In conclusion, a spatiotemporally continuous SM product with a high accuracy over the QTP was obtained.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Liu ◽  
Linna Chai ◽  
Zheng Lu ◽  
Shaomin Liu ◽  
Yuquan Qu ◽  
...  

High-quality and long time-series soil moisture (SM) data are increasingly required for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) to more accurately and effectively assess climate change. In this study, to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of SM data, five passive microwave remotely sensed SM products are collected over the QTP, including those from the soil moisture active passive (SMAP), soil moisture and ocean salinity INRA-CESBIO (SMOS-IC), Fengyun-3B microwave radiation image (FY3B), and two SM products derived from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer 2 (AMSR2). The two AMSR2 products are generated by the land parameter retrieval model (LPRM) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) algorithm, respectively. The SM products are evaluated through a two-stage data comparison method. The first stage is direct validation at the grid scale. Five SM products are compared with corresponding in situ measurements at five in situ networks, including Heihe, Naqu, Pali, Maqu, and Ngari. Another stage is indirect validation at the regional scale, where the uncertainties of the data are quantified by using a three-cornered hat (TCH) method. The results at the regional scale indicate that soil moisture is underestimated by JAXA and overestimated by LPRM, some noise is contained in temporal variations in SMOS-IC, and FY3B has relatively low absolute accuracy. The uncertainty of SMAP is the lowest among the five products over the entire QTP. In the SM map composed by five SM products with the lowest pixel-level uncertainty, 66.64% of the area is covered by SMAP (JAXA: 19.39%, FY3B: 10.83%, LPRM: 2.11%, and SMOS-IC: 1.03%). This study reveals some of the reasons for the different performances of these five SM products, mainly from the perspective of the parameterization schemes of their corresponding retrieval algorithms. Specifically, the parameterization configurations and corresponding input datasets, including the land-surface temperature, the vegetation optical depth, and the soil dielectric mixing model are analyzed and discussed. This study provides quantitative evidence to better understand the uncertainties of SM products and explain errors that originate from the retrieval algorithms.



2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1596-1609 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gift Dumedah ◽  
Aaron A. Berg ◽  
Mark Wineberg

Abstract This study has applied the Nondominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) in a two-step assimilation procedure to jointly assimilate brightness temperature into a radiative transfer model and soil moisture into a land surface model. The first assimilation procedure generates a time series of soil moisture by assimilating brightness temperature from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) into the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM). The second procedure generates assimilated soil moisture by assimilating the soil moisture from LPRM into the Canadian Land Surface Scheme (CLASS). Note that the assimilated soil moisture was generated by merging two soil moisture estimates: one from LPRM and the other from the CLASS simulation. The assimilated soil moisture is better than using the soil moisture determined either from the satellite observation or the land surface scheme alone. This method provides improved model state and parameterizations for both LPRM and CLASS with the aim to facilitate real-time forecasts when satellite information becomes available. Application of this framework to the Brightwater Creek watershed in southern Saskatchewan illustrates the utility of the joint assimilation framework to improve a time series of soil moisture estimates. The estimated soil moisture datasets were evaluated over an agricultural site in southern Saskatchewan using in situ monitoring networks. These results demonstrate that soil moisture generated from assimilation of brightness temperature could be improved by incorporating it into a land surface model. A comparison between the assimilated soil moisture and in situ dataset demonstrates an improvement in accuracy and temporal pattern that is accomplished through the assimilation framework.



2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 3607-3620 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Albergel ◽  
G. Balsamo ◽  
P. de Rosnay ◽  
J. Muñoz-Sabater ◽  
S. Boussetta

Abstract. In situ soil moisture data from 122 stations across the United States are used to evaluate the impact of a new bare ground evaporation formulation at ECMWF. In November 2010, the bare ground evaporation used in ECMWF's operational Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) was enhanced by adopting a lower stress threshold than for the vegetation, allowing a higher evaporation. It results in more realistic soil moisture values when compared to in situ data, particularly over dry areas. Use was made of the operational IFS and offline experiments for the evaluation. The latter are based on a fixed version of the IFS and make it possible to assess the impact of a single modification, while the operational analysis is based on a continuous effort to improve the analysis and modelling systems, resulting in frequent updates (a few times a year). Considering the field sites with a fraction of bare ground greater than 0.2, the root mean square difference (RMSD) of soil moisture is shown to decrease from 0.118 m3 m−3 to 0.087 m3 m−3 when using the new formulation in offline experiments, and from 0.110 m3 m−3 to 0.088 m3 m−3 in operations. It also improves correlations. Additionally, the impact of the new formulation on the terrestrial microwave emission at a global scale is investigated. Realistic and dynamically consistent fields of brightness temperature as a function of the land surface conditions are required for the assimilation of the SMOS data. Brightness temperature simulated from surface fields from two offline experiments with the Community Microwave Emission Modelling (CMEM) platform present monthly mean differences up to 7 K. Offline experiments with the new formulation present drier soil moisture, hence simulated brightness temperature with its surface fields are larger. They are also closer to SMOS remotely sensed brightness temperature.



Author(s):  
Rolf H. Reichle ◽  
Qing Liu ◽  
Joseph V. Ardizzone ◽  
Wade T. Crow ◽  
Gabrielle J. M. De Lannoy ◽  
...  

AbstractSoil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission L-band brightness temperature (Tb) observations are routinely assimilated into the Catchment land surface model to generate Level-4 Soil Moisture (L4_SM) estimates of global surface and root-zone soil moisture at 9-km, 3-hourly resolution with ~2.5-day latency. The Catchment model in the L4_SM algorithm is driven with ¼-degree, hourly surface meteorological forcing data from the Goddard Earth Observing System (GEOS). Outside of Africa and the high latitudes, GEOS precipitation is corrected using Climate Prediction Center Unified (CPCU) gauge-based, ½-degree, daily precipitation. L4_SM soil moisture was previously shown to improve over land model-only estimates that use CPCU precipitation but no Tb assimilation (CPCU_SIM). Here, we additionally examine the skill of model-only (CTRL) and Tb assimilation-only (SMAP_DA) estimates derived without CPCU precipitation. Soil moisture is assessed versus in situ measurements in well-instrumented regions and globally through the Instrumental Variable (IV) method using independent soil moisture retrievals from the Advanced Scatterometer. At the in situ locations, SMAP_DA and CPCU_SIM have comparable soil moisture skill improvements relative to CTRL for the unbiased root-mean-square error (surface and root-zone) and correlation metrics (root-zone only). In the global average, SMAP Tb assimilation increases the surface soil moisture anomaly correlation by 0.10-0.11 compared to an increase of 0.02-0.03 from the CPCU-based precipitation corrections. The contrast is particularly strong in central Australia, where CPCU is known to have errors and observation-minus-forecast Tb residuals are larger when CPCU precipitation is used. Validation versus streamflow measurements in the contiguous U.S. reveals that CPCU precipitation provides most of the skill gained in L4_SM runoff estimates over CTRL.



2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renaud Hostache ◽  
Dominik Rains ◽  
Kaniska Mallick ◽  
Marco Chini ◽  
Ramona Pelich ◽  
...  

Abstract. The main objective of this study is to investigate how brightness temperature observations from satellite microwave sensors may help in reducing errors and uncertainties in soil moisture simulations with a large-scale conceptual hydro-meteorological model. In particular, we use as forcings the ERA-Interim public dataset and we couple the CMEM radiative transfer model with a hydro-meteorological model enabling therefore soil moisture and SMOS-like brightness temperature simulations. The hydro-meteorological model is configured using recent developments of the SUPERFLEX framework, which enables tailoring the model structure to the specific needs of the application as well as to data availability and computational requirements. In this case, the model spatial resolution is adapted to the spatial grid of the satellite data, and the soil stratification is tailored to the satellite datasets to be assimilated and the forcing data. The hydrological model is first calibrated using a sample of SMOS brightness temperature observations (period 2010–2011). Next, SMOS-derived brightness temperature observations are sequentially assimilated into the coupled SUPERFLEX-CMEM model (period 2010–2015). For this experiment, a Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter is used and the meteorological forcings (ERA interim-based rainfall, air and soil temperature) are perturbed to generate a background ensemble. Each time a SMOS observation is available, the SUPERFLEX state variables related to the water content in the various soil layers are updated and the model simulations are resumed until the next SMOS observation becomes available. Our empirical results show that the SUPERFLEX-CMEM modelling chain is capable of predicting soil moisture at a performance level similar to that obtained for the same study area and with a quasi-identical experimental set up using the CLM land surface model. This shows that a simple model, when carefully calibrated, can yield performance level similar to that of a much more complex model. The correlation between simulated and in situ observed soil moisture ranges from 0.62 to 0.72. The assimilation of SMOS brightness temperature observation into the SUPERFLEX-CMEM modelling chain improves the correlation between predicted and in situ observed soil moisture by 0.03 on average showing improvements similar to those obtained using the CLM land surface model.



2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1233-1260 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. K. Shi ◽  
J. Wen ◽  
L. Wang ◽  
T. T. Zhang ◽  
H. Tian ◽  
...  

Abstract. As the satellite microwave remote sensed brightness temperature is sensitive to land surface soil moisture (SM) and SM is a basic output variable in model simulation, it is of great significance to use the brightness temperature data to improve SM numerical simulation. In this paper, the theory developed by Yan et al. (2004) about the relationship between satellite microwave remote sensing polarization index and SM was used to estimate the land surface SM from AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System) brightness temperature data. With consideration of land surface soil texture, surface roughness, vegetation optical thickness, and the AMSR-E monthly SM products, the regional daily land surface SM was estimated over the eastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results show that the estimated SM is lower than the ground measurements and the NCEP (American National Centers for Environmental Prediction) reanalysis data at the Maqu Station (33.85° N, 102.57° E) and the Tanglha Station (33.07° N, 91.94° E), but its regional distribution is reasonable and somewhat better than that from the daily AMSR-E SM product, and its temporal variation shows a quick response to the ground daily precipitations. Furthermore, in order to improve the simulating ability of the WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model to land surface SM, the estimated SM was assimilated into the Noah land surface model by the Newtonian relaxation (NR) method. The results indicate that, by fine tuning of the quality factor in NR method, the simulated SM values are improved most in desert area, followed by grassland, shrub and grass mixed zone. At temporal scale, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values between simulated and observed SM are decreased 0.03 and 0.07 m3/m3 by using the NR method in the Maqu Station and the Tanglha Station, respectively.



2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 2621-2645 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolf H. Reichle ◽  
Gabrielle J. M. De Lannoy ◽  
Qing Liu ◽  
Joseph V. Ardizzone ◽  
Andreas Colliander ◽  
...  

Abstract The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission Level-4 Surface and Root-Zone Soil Moisture (L4_SM) data product is generated by assimilating SMAP L-band brightness temperature observations into the NASA Catchment land surface model. The L4_SM product is available from 31 March 2015 to present (within 3 days from real time) and provides 3-hourly, global, 9-km resolution estimates of surface (0–5 cm) and root-zone (0–100 cm) soil moisture and land surface conditions. This study presents an overview of the L4_SM algorithm, validation approach, and product assessment versus in situ measurements. Core validation sites provide spatially averaged surface (root zone) soil moisture measurements for 43 (17) “reference pixels” at 9- and 36-km gridcell scales located in 17 (7) distinct watersheds. Sparse networks provide point-scale measurements of surface (root zone) soil moisture at 406 (311) locations. Core validation site results indicate that the L4_SM product meets its soil moisture accuracy requirement, specified as an unbiased RMSE (ubRMSE, or standard deviation of the error) of 0.04 m3 m−3 or better. The ubRMSE for L4_SM surface (root zone) soil moisture is 0.038 m3 m−3 (0.030 m3 m−3) at the 9-km scale and 0.035 m3 m−3 (0.026 m3 m−3) at the 36-km scale. The L4_SM estimates improve (significantly at the 5% level for surface soil moisture) over model-only estimates, which do not benefit from the assimilation of SMAP brightness temperature observations and have a 9-km surface (root zone) ubRMSE of 0.042 m3 m−3 (0.032 m3 m−3). Time series correlations exhibit similar relative performance. The sparse network results corroborate these findings over a greater variety of climate and land cover conditions.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianxiu Qiu ◽  
Jianzhi Dong ◽  
Wade T. Crow ◽  
Xiaohu Zhang ◽  
Rolf H. Reichle ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Level-4 Surface Soil Moisture and Root-Zone Soil Moisture (L4) product provides global estimates of surface soil moisture (SSM) and root-zone soil moisture (RZSM) via the assimilation of SMAP brightness temperature (Tb) observations into the Catchment Land Surface Model (CLSM). Here, using in-situ measurements from 2474 sites in mainland China, we evaluate the performance of soil moisture estimates from L4 and from a baseline open-loop (OL) simulation of CLSM without Tb assimilation. Using random forest regression, the efficiency of the L4 data assimilation (DA) system (i.e., the performance improvement in L4 relative to OL) is attributed to 8 control factors related to the land surface modelling (LSM) and radiative transfer modeling (RTM) components of the L4 system. Results show that 77 % of the 2287 9-km EASE grid cells in mainland China that contain at least one ground station exhibit an increase in the Spearman rank correlation skill (R) with in-situ measurements for L4 SSM compared to that of OL, with an average R increase of approximately 14 % (ΔR = 0.056). RZSM skill is improved for about the same percentage of 9-km EASE grid cells, but the average R increase for RZSM is only 7 % (ΔR = 0.034). Results further show that the SSM DA efficiency is most strongly related to the error in Tb observation space, followed by the error in precipitation forcing and microwave soil roughness. For RZSM DA efficiency, the three dominant control factors remain the same, although the importance of soil roughness exceeds that of the Tb error. For the skill of the L4 and OL estimates themselves, the top control factors are the precipitation error and the SSM-RZSM coupling strength error (in descending order of factor importance for ROL), both of which are related to the LSM component of the L4 system. Finally, we find that the L4 system can effectively filter out errors in precipitation. Therefore, future development of the L4 system should focus on improving the characterization of the SSM-RZSM coupling strength.



2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 4893
Author(s):  
Lijie Zhang ◽  
Yijian Zeng ◽  
Ruodan Zhuang ◽  
Brigitta Szabó ◽  
Salvatore Manfreda ◽  
...  

The inherent biases of different long-term gridded surface soil moisture (SSM) products, unconstrained by the in situ observations, implies different spatio-temporal patterns. In this study, the Random Forest (RF) model was trained to predict SSM from relevant land surface feature variables (i.e., land surface temperature, vegetation indices, soil texture, and geographical information) and precipitation, based on the in situ soil moisture data of the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN.). The results of the RF model show an RMSE of 0.05 m3 m−3 and a correlation coefficient of 0.9. The calculated impurity-based feature importance indicates that the Antecedent Precipitation Index affects most of the predicted soil moisture. The geographical coordinates also significantly influence the prediction (i.e., RMSE was reduced to 0.03 m3 m−3 after considering geographical coordinates), followed by land surface temperature, vegetation indices, and soil texture. The spatio-temporal pattern of RF predicted SSM was compared with the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA-CCI) soil moisture product, using both time-longitude and latitude diagrams. The results indicate that the RF SSM captures the spatial distribution and the daily, seasonal, and annual variabilities globally.



2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiangfei Li ◽  
Tonghua Wu ◽  
Xiaodong Wu ◽  
Xiaofan Zhu ◽  
Guojie Hu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Land surface models (LSMs) are effective tools for near-surface permafrost modeling. Extensive and rigorous model inter-comparison is of great importance before application due to the uncertainties in current LSMs. This study designed an ensemble of 6912 experiments to evaluate the Noah land surface model with multi-parameterization (Noah-MP) for soil temperature (ST) simulation, and investigate the sensitivity of parameterization schemes at a typical permafrost site on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The results showed that Noah-MP generally underestimates ST, especially that during the cold season. In addition, the simulation uncertainty is greater in the cold season (October-April) and for the deep soil layers. ST is most sensitive to surface layer drag coefficient (SFC) while largely influenced by runoff and groundwater (RUN). By contrast, the influence of canopy stomatal resistance (CRS) and soil moisture factor for stomatal resistance (BTR) on ST is negligible. With limited impacts on ST simulation, vegetation model (VEG), canopy gap for radiation transfer (RAD) and snow/soil temperature time scheme (STC) are more influential on shallow ST, while super-cooled liquid water (FRZ), frozen soil permeability (INF) and lower boundary of soil temperature (TBOT) have greater impacts on deep ST. Furthermore, an optimal configuration of Noah-MP for permafrost modeling were extracted based on the connectivity between schemes, and they are: table leaf area index with calculated vegetation fraction, Jarvis scheme for CRS, Noah scheme for BTR, BATS model for RUN, Chen97 for SFC, zero canopy gap for RAD, variant freezing-point depression for FRZ, hydraulic parameters defined by soil moisture for INF, ST at 8 m for TBOT, and semi-implicit method for STC. The analysis of the model structural uncertainties and characteristics of each scheme would be constructive to a better understanding of the land surface processes on the QTP and further model improvements towards near-surface permafrost modeling using the LSMs.



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