Supplementary material to "The Global SMOS Level 3 daily soil moisture and brightness temperature maps"

Abstract. The objective of this paper is to present the multi-orbit (MO) surface soil moisture (SM) and angle-binned brightness temperature (TB) products for the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission based on a new multi-orbit algorithm. The Level 3 algorithm at CATDS (Centre Aval de Traitement des Données SMOS) makes use of MO retrieval to enhance the robustness and quality of SM retrievals. The motivation of the approach is to make use of the longer temporal autocorrelation length of the vegetation optical depth (VOD) compared to the corresponding SM autocorrelation in order to enhance the retrievals when an acquisition occurs at the border of the swath. The retrieval algorithm is implemented in a unique operational processor delivering multiple parameters (e.g. SM and VOD) using multi-angular dual-polarisation TB from MO. A subsidiary angle-binned TB product is provided. In this study the Level 3 TB V310 product is showcased and compared to SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) TB. The Level 3 SM V300 product is compared to the single-orbit (SO) retrievals from the Level 2 SM processor from ESA with aligned configuration. The advantages and drawbacks of the Level 3 SM product (L3SM) are discussed. The comparison is done on a global scale between the two datasets and on the local scale with respect to in situ data from AMMA-CATCH and USDA ARS Watershed networks. The results obtained from the global analysis show that the MO implementation enhances the number of retrievals: up to 9 % over certain areas. The comparison with the in situ data shows that the increase in the number of retrievals does not come with a decrease in quality, but rather at the expense of an increased time lag in product availability from 6 h to 3.5 days, which can be a limiting factor for applications like flood forecast but reasonable for drought monitoring and climate change studies. The SMOS L3 soil moisture and L3 brightness temperature products are delivered using an open licence and free of charge using a web application (https://www.catds.fr/sipad/). The RE04 products, versions 300 and 310, used in this paper are also available at ftp://ext-catds-cpdc:[email protected]/Land_products/GRIDDED/L3SM/RE04/.

Download Full-text

The Global SMOS Level 3 daily soil moisture and brightness temperature maps

10.5194/essd-2017-1 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Ahmad Al Bitar ◽

Arnaud Mialon ◽

Yann Kerr ◽

François Cabot ◽

Philippe Richaume ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Brightness Temperature ◽

Global Analysis ◽

European Space Agency ◽

Retrieval Algorithm ◽

Limiting Factor ◽

In Situ Data ◽

Single Orbit ◽

Level 3

Abstract. The objective of this paper is to present the multi-orbit (MO) surface Soil Moisture (SM) and angle binned Brightness Temperature (TB) products for the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) mission based on the a new multi-orbit algorithm. The Level 3 algorithm at CATDS (Centre de Traitement Aval des Données SMOS) makes use of multi-orbit (multi-revisits) retrieval to enhance the robustness and quality of SM retrievals. The motivation of the approach is to make use of the temporal auto-correlation of the vegetation optical depth (VOD) to enhance the retrievals when an acquisition occurs at the border of the swath. The retrieval algorithm is implemented in a unique operational processor delivering multiple parameters (e.g. SM and VOD) using angular signatures, dual polarization and multiple revisits. A subsidiary angle binned TB product is provided. In this study the L3 TB V300 product is showcased and compared to SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) TB. The L3 SM V300 product is compared to the single-orbit (SO) retrievals from Level 2 SM processor from ESA (European Space Agency) with aligned configuration. The advantages and drawbacks of the Level 3 SM product (L3SM) product are discussed. The comparison is done at global scale between the two datasets and at local scale with respect to in situ data from AMMA-CATCH and USDA-ARS WATERSHEDS networks. The results obtained from the global analysis show that the MO implementation enhances the number of retrievals up to 9 % over certain areas. The comparison with the in situ data shows that the increase of the number of retrievals does not come with a decrease of quality. But rather at the expense of an increased lag of product availability from 6 hours to 3.5 days which can be a limiting factor for forecast applications like flood forecast but reasonable for drought monitoring and climate change studies. The SMOS L3 soil moisture and L3 brightness temperature products are delivered using an open licence and free of charge by CATDS (http://www.catds.fr).

Download Full-text

The Computation of the Effective Temperature of the Land Surface Covered with Canopy

Applied Mechanics and Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.607.830 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 607 ◽

pp. 830-834

Author(s):

Hong Zhang Ma ◽

Su Mei Liu

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Brightness Temperature ◽

Effective Temperature ◽

Land Surface ◽

Surface Soil ◽

Passive Microwave ◽

Vegetation Canopy ◽

Surface Soil Moisture ◽

Remote Sensors ◽

Energy Exchanges

—Surface soil moisture is an important parameter in describing the water and energy exchanges at the land surface/atmosphere interface. Passive microwave remote sensors have great potential for monitoring surface soil moisture over land surface. The objective of this study is going to establish a model for estimating the effective temperature of land surface covered with vegetation canopy and to investigate how to compute the microwave radiative brightness temperature of land surface covered with vegetation canopy in considering of the canopy scatter effect.

Download Full-text

Supplementary material to "Do surface lateral flows matter for data assimilation of soil moisture observations into hyperresolution land models?"

10.5194/hess-2020-106-supplement ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Yohei Sawada

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Data Assimilation ◽

Supplementary Material

Download Full-text

Towards a long-term dataset of ELBARA-II measurements assisting SMOS level-3 land product and algorithm validation at the Valencia Anchor Station

Revista de Teledetección ◽

10.4995/raet.2015.2297 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 55

Author(s):

R. Fernandez Moran ◽

J. P. Wigneron ◽

E. Lopez-Baeza ◽

M. Miernecki ◽

P. Salgado-Hernanz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Moisture ◽

Anchor Station ◽

Ocean Salinity ◽

Algorithm Validation ◽

Level 3

La misión de SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) se lanzó el 2 de Noviembre de 2009 con el objetivo de proporcionar datos de humedad del suelo y salinidad del mar. La principal actividad de la conocida como Valencia Anchor Station (VAS) es asistir en la validación a largo plazo de productos de suelo de SMOS. El presente estudio se centra en una validación de datos de nivel 3 de SMOS en la VAS con medidas in situ tomadas en el periodo 2010-2012. El radiómetro Elbara-II está situado dentro de los confines de la VAS, observando un campo de viñedos que se considera representativo de una gran proporción de un área de 50×50 km, suficiente para cubrir un footprint de SMOS. Las temperaturas de brillo (TB) adquiridas por ELBARA-II se compararon con las observadas por SMOS en las mismas fechas y horas. También se utilizó la inversión del modelo L-MEB con el fin de obtener humedades de suelo (SM) que, posteriormente, se compararon con datos de nivel 3 de SMOS. Se ha encontrado una buena correlación entre ambas series de TB, con mejoras año tras año, achacable fundamentalmente a la disminución de precipitaciones en el periodo objeto de estudio y a la mitigación de las interferencias por radiofrecuencia en banda L. La mayor homogeneidad del footprint del radiómetro ELBARA-II frente al de SMOS explica la mayor variabilidad de sus TB. Los periodos de precipitación más intensa (primavera y otoño) también son de mayor SM, lo que corrobora la consistencia de los resultados de SM simulados a través de las observaciones del radiómetro. Sin embargo, se debe resaltar una subestimación por parte de SMOS de los valores de SM respecto a los obtenidos por ELBARA-II, presumiblemente debido a la influencia que la pequeña fracción de suelo no destinado al cultivo de la vid tiene sobre SMOS. Las estimaciones por parte de SMOS en órbita descendente (6 p.m.) resultaron de mayor calidad (mayor correlación y menores RMSE y bias) que en órbita ascendente (6 a.m., momento de mayor humedad de suelo).

Download Full-text