scholarly journals Sensitive Feature Evaluation for Soil Moisture Retrieval Based on Multi-Source Remote Sensing Data with Few In-Situ Measurements: A Case Study of the Continental U.S.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2003
Author(s):  
Ling Zhang ◽  
Zixuan Zhang ◽  
Zhaohui Xue ◽  
Hao Li

Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role for understanding Earth’s land and near-surface atmosphere interactions. Existing studies rarely considered using multi-source data and their sensitiveness to SM retrieval with few in-situ measurements. To solve this issue, we designed a SM retrieval method (Multi-MDA-RF) using random forest (RF) based on 29 features derived from passive microwave remote sensing data, optical remote sensing data, land surface models (LSMs), and other auxiliary data. To evaluate the importance of different features to SM retrieval, we first compared 10 filter or embedded type feature selection methods with sequential forward selection (SFS). Then, RF was employed to establish a nonlinear relationship between the in-situ SM measurements from sparse network stations and the optimal feature subset. The experiments were conducted in the continental U.S. (CONUS) using in-situ measurements during August 2015, with only 5225 training samples covering the selected feature subset. The experimental results show that mean decrease accuracy (MDA) is better than other feature selection methods, and Multi-MDA-RF outperforms the back-propagation neural network (BPNN) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN), with the R and unbiased root-mean-square error (ubRMSE) values being 0.93 and 0.032 cm3/cm3, respectively. In comparison with other SM products, Multi-MDA-RF is more accurate and can well capture the SM spatial dynamics.

Author(s):  
D. Varade ◽  
O. Dikshit

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Snow cover characterization and estimation of snow geophysical parameters is a significant area of research in water resource management and surface hydrological processes. With advances in spaceborne remote sensing, much progress has been achieved in the qualitative and quantitative characterization of snow geophysical parameters. However, most of the methods available in the literature are based on the microwave backscatter response of snow. These methods are mostly based on the remote sensing data available from active microwave sensors. Moreover, in alpine terrains, such as in the Himalayas, due to the geometrical distortions, the missing data is significant in the active microwave remote sensing data. In this paper, we present a methodology utilizing the multispectral observations of Sentinel-2 satellite for the estimation of surface snow wetness. The proposed approach is based on the popular triangle method which is significantly utilized for the assessment of soil moisture. In this case, we develop a triangular feature space using the near infrared (NIR) reflectance and the normalized differenced snow index (NDSI). Based on the assumption that the NIR reflectance is linearly related to the liquid water content in the snow, we derive a physical relationship for the estimation of snow wetness. The modeled estimates of snow wetness from the proposed approach were compared with in-situ measurements of surface snow wetness. A high correlation determined by the coefficient of determination of 0.94 and an error of 0.535 was observed between the proposed estimates of snow wetness and in-situ measurements.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Schrön ◽  
Sascha E Oswald ◽  
Steffen Zacharias ◽  
Peter Dietrich ◽  
Sabine Attinger

&lt;p&gt;Cosmic-ray neutron albedo sensing (CRNS) is a modern technology that can be used to non-invasively measure the average water content in the environment (i.e., in soil, snow, or vegetation). The sensor footprint encompasses an area of 10-15 hectares and extends tens of decimeters deep into the soil. This method might have the potential to bridge the scale gap between conventional in-situ sensors and remote-sensing data in both, the horizontal and the vertical domain.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Currently, more than 200 sensors are operated in the growing networks of national and continental observatories. While single CRNS stations are continuously monitoring the local water dynamics at fixed field sites, mobile CRNS platforms are used for on-demand soil moisture mapping at the regional scale. The sensors are rapidly operational on any ground- or airborne vehicle. The data is particularly useful to study hydrological extreme events, heatwaves, and snow melt/accumulation, and it is being applied in hydrological models and agricultural irrigation management.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In the presentation we will explore the potential of the CRNS method to support and complement in-situ and remote-sensing data for hydrological event monitoring. We will discuss ongoing research activities that are aimed at improving the operationality, frequency, and spatial extend of CRNS measurements. New measurement strategies that are currently explored are, for example: dense clusters of 20 CRNS stations fully covering a 100 hectare catchment; heat wave monitoring with mobile car-based CRNS; regular soil/snow water mapping using mobile CRNS on cars and trains; and airborne surveys using CRNS on gyrocopters.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Future CRNS observations could provide a valuable contribution to the multi-sensor approach, e.g. to help tracking and characterizing surface water movement, to map regional-scale soil moisture patterns, or to calibrate and evaluate satellite data.&lt;/p&gt;


Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Gordana Kaplan ◽  
Zehra Yigit Avdan ◽  
Serdar Goncu ◽  
Ugur Avdan

In water resources management, remote sensing data and techniques are essential in watershed characterization and monitoring, especially when no data are available. Water quality is usually assessed through in-situ measurements that require high cost and time. Water quality parameters help in decision making regarding the further use of water-based on its quality. Turbidity is an important water quality parameter and an indicator of water pollution. In the past few decades, remote sensing has been widely used in water quality research. In this study, we compare turbidity parameters retrieved from a high-resolution image with in-situ measurements collected from Borabey Lake, Turkey. Here, the use of RapidEye-3 images (5 m-resolution) allows for detailed assessment of spatio-temporal evaluation of turbidity, through the normalized difference turbidity index (NDTI). The turbidity results were then compared with data from 21 in-situ measurements collected in the same period. The actual water turbidity measurements showed high correlation with the estimated NDTI mean values with an R2 of 0.84. The research findings support the use of remote sensing data of RadipEye-3 to estimate water quality parameters in small water areas. For future studies, we recommend investigating different water quality parameters using high-resolution remote sensing data.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 877
Author(s):  
Jian Liu ◽  
Youshuan Xu ◽  
Henghui Li ◽  
Jiao Guo

As an important component of the earth ecosystem, soil moisture monitoring is of great significance in the fields of crop growth monitoring, crop yield estimation, variable irrigation, and other related applications. In order to mitigate or eliminate the impacts of sparse vegetation covers in farmland areas, this study combines multi-source remote sensing data from Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical satellites to quantitatively retrieve soil moisture content. Firstly, a traditional Oh model was applied to estimate soil moisture content after removing vegetation influence by a water cloud model. Secondly, support vector regression (SVR) and generalized regression neural network (GRNN) models were used to establish the relationships between various remote sensing features and real soil moisture. Finally, a regression convolutional neural network (CNNR) model is constructed to extract deep-level features of remote sensing data to increase soil moisture retrieval accuracy. In addition, polarimetric decomposition features for real Sentinel-1 PolSAR data are also included in the construction of inversion models. Based on the established soil moisture retrieval models, this study analyzes the influence of each input feature on the inversion accuracy in detail. The experimental results show that the optimal combination of R2 and root mean square error (RMSE) for SVR is 0.7619 and 0.0257 cm3/cm3, respectively. The optimal combination of R2 and RMSE for GRNN is 0.7098 and 0.0264 cm3/cm3, respectively. Especially, the CNNR model with optimal feature combination can generate inversion results with the highest accuracy, whose R2 and RMSE reach up to 0.8947 and 0.0208 cm3/cm3, respectively. Compared to other methods, the proposed algorithm improves the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and optical data. Furthermore, after adding polarization decomposition features, the R2 of CNNR is raised by 0.1524 and the RMSE of CNNR decreased by 0.0019 cm3/cm3 on average, which means that the addition of polarimetric decomposition features effectively improves the accuracy of soil moisture retrieval results.


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