scholarly journals Monitoring Surface Soil Moisture Content over the Vegetated Area by Integrating Optical and SAR Satellite Observations in the Permafrost Region of Tibetan Plateau

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chenyang Xu ◽  
John J. Qu ◽  
Xianjun Hao ◽  
Di Wu
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Cloud Model ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Permafrost Region ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
The Impact

Surface soil moisture (SSM), the average water content of surface soil (up to 5 cm depth), plays a key role in the energy exchange within the ecosystem. We estimated SSM in areas with vegetation cover (grassland) by combining microwave and optical satellite measurements in the central Tibetan Plateau (TP) in 2015. We exploited TERRA moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Sentinel-1A synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations to estimate SSM through a simplified water-cloud model (sWCM). This model considers the impact of vegetation water content (VWC) to SSM retrieval by integrating the vegetation index (VI), the normalized difference water index (NDWI), or the normalized difference infrared index (NDII). Sentinel-1 SAR C-band backscattering coefficients, incidence angle, and NDWI/NDII were assimilated in the sWCM to monitor SSM. The soil moisture and temperature monitoring network on the central TP (CTP-SMTMN) measures SSM within the study area, and ground measurements were applied to train and validate the model. Via the proposed methods, we estimated the SSM in vegetated area with an R2 of 0.43 and a ubRMSE of 0.06 m3/m3 when integrating the NDWI and with an R2 of 0.45 and a ubRMSE of 0.06 m3/m3 when integrating the NDII.

scholarly journals Assimilation of SMOS brightness temperatures or soil moisture retrievals into a land surface model

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (12) ◽  
pp. 4895-4911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriëlle J. M. De Lannoy ◽  
Rolf H. Reichle
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Land Surface Model ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Model Errors ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Brightness Temperatures

Abstract. Three different data products from the Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission are assimilated separately into the Goddard Earth Observing System Model, version 5 (GEOS-5) to improve estimates of surface and root-zone soil moisture. The first product consists of multi-angle, dual-polarization brightness temperature (Tb) observations at the bottom of the atmosphere extracted from Level 1 data. The second product is a derived SMOS Tb product that mimics the data at a 40° incidence angle from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. The third product is the operational SMOS Level 2 surface soil moisture (SM) retrieval product. The assimilation system uses a spatially distributed ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with seasonally varying climatological bias mitigation for Tb assimilation, whereas a time-invariant cumulative density function matching is used for SM retrieval assimilation. All assimilation experiments improve the soil moisture estimates compared to model-only simulations in terms of unbiased root-mean-square differences and anomaly correlations during the period from 1 July 2010 to 1 May 2015 and for 187 sites across the US. Especially in areas where the satellite data are most sensitive to surface soil moisture, large skill improvements (e.g., an increase in the anomaly correlation by 0.1) are found in the surface soil moisture. The domain-average surface and root-zone skill metrics are similar among the various assimilation experiments, but large differences in skill are found locally. The observation-minus-forecast residuals and analysis increments reveal large differences in how the observations add value in the Tb and SM retrieval assimilation systems. The distinct patterns of these diagnostics in the two systems reflect observation and model errors patterns that are not well captured in the assigned EnKF error parameters. Consequently, a localized optimization of the EnKF error parameters is needed to further improve Tb or SM retrieval assimilation.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the AMSR2 L2 soil moisture product of JAXA on the Mongolian Plateau over seven years (2012–2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ichirow Kaihotsu ◽  
Jun Asanuma ◽  
Kentaro Aida ◽  
Dambaravjaa Oyunbaatar
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Mongolian Plateau ◽  
Moisture Measurement ◽  
Rainfall Condition ◽  
Soil Moisture Measurement

Abstract This study evaluated the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) L2 soil moisture product (ver. 3) using in situ hydrological observational data, acquired over 7 years (2012–2018), from a 50 × 50 km flat area of the Mongolian Plateau covered with bare soil, pasture and shrubs. Although AMSR2 slightly underestimated soil moisture content at 3-cm depth, satisfactory timing was observed in both the response patterns and the in situ soil moisture data, and the differences between these factors were not large. In terms of the relationship between AMSR2 soil moisture from descending orbits and in situ measured soil moisture at 3-cm depth, the values of the RMSE (m3/m3) and the bias (m3/m3) varied from 0.028 to 0.063 and from 0.011 to − 0.001 m3/m3, respectively. The values of the RMSE and bias depended on rainfall condition. The mean value of the RMSE for the 7-year period was 0.042 m3/m3, i.e., lower than the target accuracy 0.050 m3/m3. The validation results for descending orbits were found slightly better than for ascending orbits. Comparison of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) soil moisture product with the AMSR2 L2 soil moisture product showed that AMSR2 could observe surface soil moisture with nearly same accuracy and stability. However, the bias of the AMSR2 soil moisture measurement was slightly negative and poorer than that of SMOS with deeper soil moisture measurement. It means that AMSR2 cannot effectively measure soil moisture at 3-cm depth. In situ soil temperature at 3-cm depth and surface vegetation (normalized difference vegetation index) did not influence the underestimation of AMSR2 soil moisture measurements. These results suggest that a possible cause of the underestimation of AMSR2 soil moisture measurements is the difference between the depth of the AMSR2 observations and in situ soil moisture measurements. Overall, this study proved the AMSR2 L2 soil moisture product has been useful for monitoring daily surface soil moisture over large grassland areas and it clearly demonstrated the high-performance capability of AMSR2 since 2012.

scholarly journals The impact of near-surface soil moisture assimilation at subseasonal, seasonal, and inter-annual timescales

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 4831-4844 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Draper ◽  
R. Reichle
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A 9 year record of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) soil moisture retrievals are assimilated into the Catchment land surface model at four locations in the US. The assimilation is evaluated using the unbiased mean square error (ubMSE) relative to watershed-scale in situ observations, with the ubMSE separated into contributions from the subseasonal (SMshort), mean seasonal (SMseas), and inter-annual (SMlong) soil moisture dynamics. For near-surface soil moisture, the average ubMSE for Catchment without assimilation was (1.8 × 10−3 m3 m−3)2, of which 19 % was in SMlong, 26 % in SMseas, and 55 % in SMshort. The AMSR-E assimilation significantly reduced the total ubMSE at every site, with an average reduction of 33 %. Of this ubMSE reduction, 37 % occurred in SMlong, 24 % in SMseas, and 38 % in SMshort. For root-zone soil moisture, in situ observations were available at one site only, and the near-surface and root-zone results were very similar at this site. These results suggest that, in addition to the well-reported improvements in SMshort, assimilating a sufficiently long soil moisture data record can also improve the model representation of important long-term events, such as droughts. The improved agreement between the modeled and in situ SMseas is harder to interpret, given that mean seasonal cycle errors are systematic, and systematic errors are not typically targeted by (bias-blind) data assimilation. Finally, the use of 1-year subsets of the AMSR-E and Catchment soil moisture for estimating the observation-bias correction (rescaling) parameters is investigated. It is concluded that when only 1 year of data are available, the associated uncertainty in the rescaling parameters should not greatly reduce the average benefit gained from data assimilation, although locally and in extreme years there is a risk of increased errors.

scholarly journals Soil Moisture Analysis by Means of Multispectral Images According to Land Use and Spatial Resolution on Andosols in the Colombian Andes

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (16) ◽  
pp. 5540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Casamitjana ◽  
Maria C. Torres-Madroñero ◽  
Jaime Bernal-Riobo ◽  
Diego Varga
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Vegetation Indices ◽  
Bare Soil ◽  
Multispectral Images ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Mountain Environments ◽  
Tropical Mountain ◽  
Moisture Analysis

Surface soil moisture is an important hydrological parameter in agricultural areas. Periodic measurements in tropical mountain environments are poorly representative of larger areas, while satellite resolution is too coarse to be effective in these topographically varied landscapes, making spatial resolution an important parameter to consider. The Las Palmas catchment area near Medellin in Colombia is a vital water reservoir that stores considerable amounts of water in its andosol. In this tropical Andean setting, we use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with multispectral (visible, near infrared) sensors to determine the correlation of three agricultural land uses (potatoes, bare soil, and pasture) with surface soil moisture. Four vegetation indices (the perpendicular drought index, PDI; the normalized difference vegetation index, NDVI; the normalized difference water index, NDWI, and the soil-adjusted vegetation index, SAVI) were applied to UAV imagery and a 3 m resolution to estimate surface soil moisture through calibration with in situ field measurements. The results showed that on bare soil, the indices that best fit the soil moisture results are NDVI, NDWI and PDI on a detailed scale, whereas on potatoes crops, the NDWI is the index that correlates significantly with soil moisture, irrespective of the scale. Multispectral images and vegetation indices provide good soil moisture understanding in tropical mountain environments, with 3 m remote sensing images which are shown to be a good alternative to soil moisture analysis on pastures using the NDVI and UAV images for bare soil and potatoes.

scholarly journals Evaporative Fluxes and Surface Soil Moisture Retrievals in a Mediterranean Setting from Sentinel-3 and the “Simplified Triangle”

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (19) ◽  
pp. 3192 ◽  
Author(s):  
George P. Petropoulos ◽  
Ionut Sandric ◽  
Dionissios Hristopulos ◽  
Toby Nahum Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Feature Space ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Detailed Assessment ◽  
Mean Square Difference ◽  
Earth’S System

Earth Observation (EO) makes it possible to obtain information on key parameters characterizing interactions among Earth’s system components, such as evaporative fraction (EF) and surface soil moisture (SSM). Notably, techniques utilizing EO data of land surface temperature (Ts) and vegetation index (VI) have shown promise in this regard. The present study investigates, for the first time, the accuracy of one such technique, known as the “simplified triangle”, using Sentinel-3 EO data, acquired for 44 days in 2018 at three savannah FLUXNET sites in Spain. The technique was found to be able to predict both EF and SSM with reasonable accuracy when compared to collocated ground measurements. Comparisons performed for all days together showed relatively low Root Mean square Difference (RMSD) for both EF (0.191) and SSM (0.012 cm3 cm−3) and good correlation coefficients (R) of 0.721 and 0.577, respectively. Both EF and SSM were also largely in agreement with land cover and seasonal variability. The present study comprises the first detailed assessment of the “simplified triangle”, in this case, using Sentinel-3 data and in a Mediterranean setting. Findings, albeit preliminary, are of significant value regarding the use of the investigated technique as a tool of environmental management, and towards ongoing, worldwide efforts aiming at developing operationally relevant products based on the Ts/VI feature space and EO data based on new satellites such as Sentinel-3.

Mapping surface soil moisture over wheat crops in southern Mediterranean regions using the backscattering coefficient and the interferometric coherence derived from Sentinel-1

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadia Ouaadi ◽  
Lionel Jarlan ◽  
Jamal Ezzahar ◽  
Saïd Khabba ◽  
Mehrez Zribi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Temporal Resolution ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Cloud Model ◽  
Microwave Remote Sensing ◽  
Radar Data ◽  
Optical Data ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Backscattering Coefficient ◽  
New Approach

<p>High spatial and temporal resolution products of Sentinel-1 are used for surface soil moisture (SSM) mapping over wheat fields in semi-arid areas. Within these regions, monitoring the water-use is a critical aspect for optimizing the management of the limited water resources via irrigation monitoring. SSM is one of the principal quantities affecting microwave remote sensing. This sensitivity has been exploited to estimate SSM from radar data, which has the advantages of providing data independent of illumination and weather conditions. In addition, with the use of Sentinel-1 products, the spatial and temporal resolution is greatly improved. Within this context, the main objective of this work is estimate SSM over wheat fields using an approach based on the use of C-band Sentinel-1 radar data only. Over the study site, field measurement are collected during 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 growing seasons over two fields of winter wheat with drip irrigation located in the Haouz plain in the center of Morocco. Data of other sites in Morocco and Tunisia are taken for validation purposes. The validation database contains a total number of 20 plots divided between irrigated and rainfed wheat plots. Two different information extracted from Sentinel-1 products are used: the backscattering coefficient and the interferometric coherence. A total number of 408 GRD and 419 SLC images were processed for computing the backscattering coefficient and the interferometric coherence, respectively. The analysis of Sentinel-1 time series over the study site show that coherence is sensitive to the development of wheat, while the backscatter coefficient is widely linked to changes in surface soil moisture. Later on, the Water Cloud Model coupled with the Oh et al, 1992 model were used for better understand the backscattering mechanism of wheat canopies. The coupled model is calibrated and validated over the study site and it proved to goodly enough reproduce the Sentinel-1 backscatter with RMSE ranging from 1.5 to 2.52 dB for VV and VH using biomass as a descriptor of wheat. On the other side, the analysis show that coherence is well correlated to biomass. Thus, the calibrated model is used in an inversion algorithm to retrieve SSM using the Sentinel-1 backscatter and coherence as inputs. The results of inversion show that the proposed new approach is able to retrieve the surface soil moisture at 35.2° for VV, with R=0.82, RMSE=0.05m<sup>3/</sup>m<sup>3 </sup>and no bias. Using the validation database of Morocco and Tunisia, R is always greater than 0.7 and RMSE and bias are less than 0.008 m<sup>3/</sup>m<sup>3</sup> and 0.03 m<sup>3/</sup>m<sup>3</sup>, respectively even that the incidence angle is higher (40°). In order to assess its quality, the approach is compared to four SSM retrieval methods that use radar and optical data in empirical and semi-empirical approaches. Results indicate that the proposed approach shows an improvement of SSM retrieval between 17% and 42% compared to other methods. Finally, the validated new approach is used for SSM mapping, with a spatial resolution of 10*10 m, over irrigated perimeters of wheat in Morocco.</p>

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