scholarly journals A Soil Moisture Spatial and Temporal Resolution Improving Algorithm Based on Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data and GRNN Model

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaokui Cui ◽  
Xi Chen ◽  
Wentao Xiong ◽  
Lian He ◽  
Feng Lv ◽  
...  

Surface soil moisture (SM) plays an essential role in the water and energy balance between the land surface and the atmosphere. Low spatio-temporal resolution, about 25–40 km and 2–3 days, of the commonly used global microwave SM products limits their application at regional scales. In this study, we developed an algorithm to improve the SM spatio-temporal resolution using multi-source remote sensing data and a machine-learning model named the General Regression Neural Network (GRNN). First, six high spatial resolution input variables, including Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), albedo, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), Longitude (Lon) and Latitude (Lat), were selected and gap-filled to obtain high spatio-temporal resolution inputs. Then, the GRNN was trained at a low spatio-temporal resolution to obtain the relationship between SM and input variables. Finally, the trained GRNN was driven by the high spatio-temporal resolution input variables to obtain high spatio-temporal resolution SM. We used the Fengyun-3B (FY-3B) SM over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) to test the algorithm. The results show that the algorithm could successfully improve the spatio-temporal resolution of FY-3B SM from 0.25° and 2–3 days to 0.05° and 1-day over the TP. The improved SM is consistent with the original product in terms of both spatial distribution and temporal variation. The high spatio-temporal resolution SM allows a better understanding of the diurnal and seasonal variations of SM at the regional scale, consequently enhancing ecological and hydrological applications, especially under climate change.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaime Gaona ◽  
Pere Quintana-Seguí ◽  
Maria José Escorihuela

<p>The Mediterranean climate of the Iberian Peninsula defines high spatial and temporal variability of drought at multiple scales. These droughts impact human activities such as water management, agriculture or forestry, and may alter valuable natural ecosystems as well. An accurate understanding and monitoring of drought processes are crucial in this area. The HUMID project (CGL2017-85687-R) is studying how remote sensing data and models (Quintana-Seguí et al., 2019; Barella-Ortiz and Quintana-Seguí, 2019) can improve our current knowledge on Iberian droughts, in general, and in the Ebro basin, more specifically.</p><p>The traditional ground-based monitoring of drought lacks the spatial resolution needed to identify the microclimatic mechanisms of drought at sub-basin scale, particularly when considering relevant variables for drought such as soil moisture and evapotranspiration. In situ data of these two variables is very scarce.</p><p>The increasing availability of remote sensing products such as MODIS16 A2 ET and the high-resolution SMOS 1km facilitates the use of distributed observations for the analysis of drought patterns across scales. The data is used to generate standardized drought indexes: the soil moisture deficit index (SMDI) based on SMOS 1km data (2010-2019) and the evapotranspiration deficit index (ETDI) based on MODIS16 A2 ET 500m. The study aims to identify the spatio-temporal mechanisms of drought generation, propagation and mitigation within the Ebro River basin and sub-basins, located in NE Spain where dynamic Atlantic, Mediterranean and Continental climatic influences dynamically mix, causing a large heterogeneity in climates.</p><p>Droughts in the 10-year period 2010-2019 of study exhibit spatio-temporal patterns at synoptic and mesoscale scales. Mesoscale spatio-temporal patterns prevail for the SMDI while the ETDI ones show primarily synoptic characteristics. The study compares the patterns of drought propagation identified with remote sensing data with the patterns estimated using the land surface model SURFEX-ISBA at 5km.  The comparison provides further insights about the capabilities and limitations of both tools, while emphasizes the value of combining approaches to improve our understanding about the complexity of drought processes across scales.</p><p>Additionally, the periods of quick change of drought indexes comprise valuable information about the response of evapotranspiration to water deficits as well as on the resilience of soil to evaporative stress. The lag analysis ranges from weeks to seasons. Results show lags between the ETDI and SMDI ranging from days to weeks depending on the precedent drought status and the season/month of drought’s generation or mitigation. The comparison of the lags observed on remote sensing data and land surface model data aims at evaluating the adequacy of the data sources and the indexes to represent the nonlinear interaction between soil moisture and evapotranspiration. This aspect is particularly relevant for developing drought monitoring aiming at managing the impact of drought in semi-arid environments and improving the adaptation to drought alterations under climate change.</p>


Author(s):  
Weijing Chen ◽  
Chunlin Huang ◽  
Zong-Liang Yang ◽  
Ying Zhang

AbstractData assimilation provides a practical way to improve the accuracy of soil moisture simulation by integrating a land surface model and satellite data. This study establishes a multi-source remote sensing data assimilation framework by incorporating a simultaneous state and parameter estimation method to acquire an accurate estimation of the soil moisture over the Tibetan Plateau. The brightness temperature of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) is directly assimilated into the coupled system of the Common Land Model (CoLM) and a microwave radiative transfer model (RTM) to improve the soil moisture simulation. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature product and the Beijing Normal University (BNU) leaf area index product are employed to not only improve the estimation of temperature and vegetation variables from the CoLM, but also provide more accurate background information for the RTM during the brightness temperature assimilation. In situ measurements from the Naqu network are used to evaluate the results. The model simulation showed an obvious underestimation of soil moisture and overestimation of soil temperature, which was alleviated by the assimilation experiments, particularly in the shallow soil layers. The estimated parameters also showed advantages in the soil moisture simulation when compared with the default parameters. The assimilation experiment presents promising results in the combination of model and multi-source remote sensing data for estimating soil moisture over the complex mountainous region in Tibet.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 49-56 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Löw ◽  
R. Ludwig ◽  
W. Mauser

Abstract. Hydrologic processes, such as runoff production or evapotranspiration, largely depend on the variation of soil moisture and its spatial pattern. The interaction of electromagnetic waves with the land surface can be dependant on the water content of the uppermost soil layer. Especially in the microwave domain of the electromagnetic spectrum, this is the case. New sensors as e.g. ENVISAT ASAR, allow for frequent, synoptically and homogeneous image acquisitions over larger areas. Parameter inversion models are therefore developed to derive bio- and geophysical parameters from the image products. The paper presents a soil moisture inversion model for ENVISAT ASAR data for local and regional scale applications. The model is validated against in situ soil moisture measurements. The various sources of uncertainties, being related to the inversion process are assessed and quantified.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingyi Huang ◽  
Ankur Desai ◽  
Jun Zhu ◽  
Alfred Hartemink ◽  
Paul Stoy ◽  
...  

<p>Current in situ soil moisture monitoring networks are sparsely distributed while remote sensing satellite soil moisture maps have a very coarse spatial resolution. In this study, an empirical global surface soil moisture (SSM) model was established via fusion of in situ continental and regional scale soil moisture networks, remote sensing data (SMAP and Sentinel-1) and high-resolution land surface parameters (e.g., soil texture, terrain) using a quantile random forest (QRF) algorithm. The model had a spatial resolution of 100m and performed moderately well under cultivated, herbaceous, forest, and shrub soils (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.524, RMSE = 0.07 m<sup>3</sup> m<sup>−3</sup>). It has a relatively good transferability at the regional scale among different continental and regional networks (mean RMSE = 0.08–0.10 m<sup>3</sup> m<sup>−3</sup>). The global model was then applied to map SSM dynamics at 30–100m across a field-scale network (TERENO-Wüstebach) in Germany and an 80-ha irrigated cropland in Wisconsin, USA. Without local training data, the model was able to delineate the variations in SSM at the field scale but contained large bias. With the addition of 10% local training datasets (“spiking”), the bias of the model was significantly reduced. The QRF model was also affected by the resolution and accuracy of soil maps. It was concluded that the empirical model has the potential to be applied elsewhere across the globe to map SSM at the regional to field scales for research and applications. Future research is required to improve the performance of the model by incorporating more field-scale soil moisture sensor networks and high-resolution soil maps as well as assimilation with process-based water flow models.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Veronika Döpper ◽  
Tobias Gränzig ◽  
Michael Förster ◽  
Birgit Kleinschmit

<p>Soil moisture content (SMC) is of fundamental importance to many hydrological, biological, biochemical and atmospheric processes. Common soil moisture measurements range from local point measurements to global remote sensing-based SMC datasets. Nevertheless, they always compromise between temporal and spatial resolution. Thus, it is still challenging to quantify spatially and temporally distributed SMC at a regional scale which is extremely relevant for hydrological modeling or agricultural management. The innovative technology Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing (CRNS) shows significant potential to fill this gap by quantifying the present hydrogen pools within footprints larger than 0.1 ha.</p><p>Owing to the difference in scale between the ground resolution of satellites used to retrieve soil moisture and the common point scale of ground-based soil moisture instruments, the large footprint of the CRNS poses a high potential for the validation of SMC remote sensing products. When linking the CRNS measurements with remote sensing data, the vertical and horizontal characteristics of its footprint need to be considered.</p><p>To examine the influence of the CRNS footprint characteristics on the linkage of CRNS and remote sensing data, we couple CRNS measurements with high-resolution UAS-based thermal imagery acquired at two sites in Bavaria and Brandenburg (Germany) using a radiometrically calibrated FLIR Tau 2 336 (FLIR Systems, Inc., Wilsonville, OR, USA) with a focal length of 9 mm. Within this context, we evaluate the added value of applying a horizontal weighting function to the spatially distributed thermal data in comparison to an unweighted mean when statistically representing the corrected neutron counting rates.</p><p>The project is part of the DFG-funded research group Cosmic Sense, which aims to provide interdisciplinary new representative insights into hydrological changes at the land surface.</p>


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