Evaluating soil moisture retrieval in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments using passive microwave satellite data


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julia.boike [ at ] awi.de

Abstract

Soil Moisture (SM) is a key parameter in northern Arctic and sub-Arctic (A-SA) environments that are highly vulnerable to climate change. We evaluated six SM satellite passive microwave datasets using thirteen ground-based SM stations across Northwestern America. The best agreement was obtained with SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) products with the lowest RMSD (Root Mean Square Difference) (0.07 m (Formula presented.) m (Formula presented.)) and the highest R (0.55). ESA CCI (European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative) also performed well in terms of correlation with a similar R (0.55) but showed a strong variation among sites. Weak results were obtained over sites with high water body fractions. This study also details and evaluates a dedicated retrieval of SM from SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) brightness temperatures based on the (Formula presented.) model. Two soil dielectric models (Mironov and Bircher) and a dedicated soil roughness and single scattering albedo parameterization were tested. Water body correction in the retrieval shows limited improvement. The metrics of our retrievals (RMSD = 0.08 m (Formula presented.) m (Formula presented.) and R = 0.41) are better than SMOS but outperformed by SMAP. Passive microwave satellite remote sensing is suitable for SM retrieval in the A-SA region, but a dedicated approach should be considered.



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Article
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Published
Eprint ID
59517
DOI 10.1080/17538947.2024.2385079

Cite as
Ortet, J. , Mialon, A. , Kerr, Y. , Royer, A. , Berg, A. , Boike, J. , Humphreys, E. , Gibon, F. , Richaume, P. , Bircher-Adrot, S. , Gorrab, A. and Roy, A. (2024): Evaluating soil moisture retrieval in Arctic and sub-Arctic environments using passive microwave satellite data , International Journal of Digital Earth, 17 (1), p. 2385079 . doi: 10.1080/17538947.2024.2385079


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Campaigns
Arctic Land Expeditions > RU-Land_2013_Lena
Arctic Land Expeditions > RU-Land_2016_Lena
Arctic Land Expeditions > RU-Land_2018_Lena
Arctic Land Expeditions > RU-Land_2019_Lena


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