Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture

Soil moisture is an important variable in land surface hydrology as it controls the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil and replenishes the water table versus the amount that contributes to surface runoff and to channel flow. However observations of soil moisture at a point scale are very sparse and observing networks are expensive to maintain. Satellite sensors can observe large areas but the spatial resolution of these is dependent on microwave frequency, antenna dimensions, and height above the earth’s surface. The higher the sensor, the lower the spatial resolution and at low elevations the spacecraft would use more fuel. Higher spatial resolution requires larger diameter antennas that in turn require more fuel to maintain in space. Given these competing issues most passive radiometers have spatial resolutions in 10s of kilometers that are too coarse for catchment hydrology applications. Most local applications require higher-spatial-resolution soil moisture data. Downscaling of the data requires ancillary data and model products, all of which are used here to develop high-spatial-resolution soil moisture for catchment applications in hydrology. In this paper the author will outline and explain the methodology for downscaling passive microwave estimation of soil moisture.

[1]  Michael D. Eilts,et al.  The Oklahoma Mesonet: A Technical Overview , 1995 .

[2]  F. Ulaby,et al.  Radar mapping of surface soil moisture , 1996 .

[3]  W. J. Shuttleworth,et al.  Integration of soil moisture remote sensing and hydrologic modeling using data assimilation , 1998 .

[4]  E. Engman,et al.  Status of microwave soil moisture measurements with remote sensing , 1995 .

[5]  D. R. Fatland,et al.  Change detection on Alaska's North Slope using repeat-pass ERS-1 SAR images , 1993, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[6]  F. Ulaby,et al.  Effects of Vegetation Cover on the Microwave Radiometric Sensitivity to Soil Moisture , 1983, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[7]  T. Schmugge.  Remote sensing of soil moisture , 1976 .

[8]  Li Li,et al.  Retrieval of land surface parameters using passive microwave measurements at 6-18 GHz , 1999, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[9]  T. Jackson,et al.  Using TRMM/TMI to Retrieve Surface Soil Moisture over the Southern United States from 1998 to 2002 , 2006 .

[10]  Misako Kachi,et al.  Global Change Observation Mission (GCOM) for Monitoring Carbon, Water Cycles, and Climate Change , 2010, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[11]  Special sensor microwave imager data in field experiments: FIFE-1987 , 1998 .

[12]  Sutherland,et al.  Statewide Monitoring of the Mesoscale Environment: A Technical Update on the Oklahoma Mesonet , 2007 .

[13]  D. G. Moore,et al.  Evaluating near-surface soil moisture using Heat Capacity Mapping Mission data , 1982 .

[14]  Dara Entekhabi,et al.  Analysis of Feedback Mechanisms in Land-Atmosphere Interaction , 1996 .

[15]  M. Minacapilli,et al.  High resolution remote estimation of soil surface water content by a thermal inertia approach , 2009 .

[16]  J. Townshend,et al.  Global land cover classifications at 8 km spatial resolution: The use of training data derived from Landsat imagery in decision tree classifiers , 1998 .

[17]  J. Shukla,et al.  Influence of Land-Surface Evapotranspiration on the Earth's Climate , 1982, Science.

[18]  Venkat Lakshmi,et al.  Retrieval of soil moisture from passive and active L/S band sensor (PALS) observations during the Soil Moisture Experiment in 2002 (SMEX02) , 2004 .

[19]  C. A. Laymon,et al.  Huntsville '96: An experiment in ground-based microwave remote sensing of soil moisture , 1999 .

[20]  Bradley G. Illston,et al.  Mesoscale Monitoring of Soil Moisture across a Statewide Network , 2008 .

[21]  Jiancheng Shi,et al.  Estimation of bare surface soil moisture and surface roughness parameter using L-band SAR image data , 1997, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[22]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Field scale spatiotemporal analysis of surface soil moisture for evaluating point-scale in situ networks , 2012 .

[23]  T. Mo,et al.  A model for microwave emission from vegetation‐covered fields , 1982 .

[24]  R. Pielke.  Influence of the spatial distribution of vegetation and soils on the prediction of cumulus Convective rainfall , 2001 .

[25]  T. Jackson,et al.  Use of active and passive microwave remote sensing for soil moisture estimation through corn , 1996 .

[26]  T. Jackson,et al.  The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) , 2007 .

[27]  Zhao-Liang Li,et al.  A physics-based algorithm for retrieving land-surface emissivity and temperature from EOS/MODIS data , 1997, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[28]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Soil moisture mapping at regional scales using microwave radiometry: the Southern Great Plains Hydrology Experiment , 1999, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[29]  C. Tucker.  Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation , 1979 .

[30]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Observations of soil moisture using a passive and active low-frequency microwave airborne sensor during SGP99 , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[31]  Kamal Sarabandi,et al.  An empirical model and an inversion technique for radar scattering from bare soil surfaces , 1992, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[32]  Y. Kerr,et al.  A semiempirical model for interpreting microwave emission from semiarid land surfaces as seen from space , 1990 .

[33]  Thomas R. H. Holmes,et al.  An evaluation of AMSR–E derived soil moisture over Australia , 2009 .

[34]  D. A. Imel,et al.  The NASA/JPL Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar , 2002 .

[35]  Venkat Lakshmi,et al.  A soil‐canopy‐atmosphere model for use in satellite microwave remote sensing , 1997 .

[36]  Yann Kerr,et al.  Downscaling SMOS-Derived Soil Moisture Using MODIS Visible/Infrared Data , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[37]  Lifeng Luo,et al.  Streamflow and water balance intercomparisons of four land surface models in the North American Land Data Assimilation System Project , 2004 .

[38]  T. Schmugge,et al.  Remote sensing of soil moisture with microwave radiometers , 1974 .

[39]  E. Engman,et al.  Estimating Soil Moisture From Satellite Microwave Observations: Past and Ongoing Projects, and Relevance to GCIP. , 1999 .

[40]  Dara Entekhabi,et al.  An Algorithm for Merging SMAP Radiometer and Radar Data for High-Resolution Soil-Moisture Retrieval , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[41]  Thomas J. Schmugge,et al.  An interpretation of methodologies for indirect measurement of soil water content , 1995 .

[42]  R. Jeu,et al.  Multisensor historical climatology of satellite‐derived global land surface moisture , 2008 .

[43]  B. Choudhury,et al.  Effect of surface roughness on the microwave emission from soils , 1979 .

[44]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Real‐time and retrospective forcing in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) project , 2003 .

[45]  I. Sandholt,et al.  A simple interpretation of the surface temperature/vegetation index space for assessment of surface moisture status , 2002 .

[46]  W. Wagner,et al.  Soil moisture from operational meteorological satellites , 2007 .

[47]  T. Schmugge,et al.  Remote sensing in hydrology , 2002 .

[48]  Ahmad Al Bitar,et al.  A sequential model for disaggregating near-surface soil moisture observations using multi-resolution thermal sensors , 2009 .

[49]  Wenge Ni-Meister,et al.  Soil moisture initialization for climate prediction: Assimilation of scanning multifrequency microwave radiometer soil moisture data into a land surface model , 2006 .

[50]  Estimating the Soil Moisture Profile by Assimilating Near-Surface Observations with the Ensemble Kalman Filter （EnKF） , 2005 .

[51]  Kaniska Mallick,et al.  Estimating volumetric surface moisture content for cropped soils using a soil wetness index based on surface temperature and NDVI , 2009 .

[52]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Validation of AMSR-E soil moisture using L-band airborne radiometer data from National Airborne Field Experiment 2006 , 2011 .

[53]  W. Wagner,et al.  Global Soil Moisture Patterns Observed by Space Borne Microwave Radiometers and Scatterometers , 2008 .

[54]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture: results from HAPEX, FIFE and MONSOON 90 , 1992 .

[55]  B. Choudhury,et al.  Investigation of effect of heterogeneities in vegetation and rainfall on simulated SSM/I brightness temperatures , 1997 .

[56]  S. Goetz.  Multi-sensor analysis of NDVI, surface temperature and biophysical variables at a mixed grassland site , 1997 .

[57]  P. Wetzel,et al.  Effects of Spatial Variations of Soil Moisture and Vegetation on the Evolution of a Prestorm Environment: A Numerical Case Study , 1991 .

[58]  R. Myneni,et al.  The interpretation of spectral vegetation indexes , 1995 .

[59]  T. Jackson,et al.  Watershed scale temporal and spatial stability of soil moisture and its role in validating satellite estimates , 2004 .

[60]  E. T. Engman,et al.  The L-band PBMR measurements of surface soil moisture in FIFE , 1990 .

[61]  F. Ulaby,et al.  Active Microwave Soil Moisture Research , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[62]  Yann Kerr,et al.  A Simple Method to Disaggregate Passive Microwave-Based Soil Moisture , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[63]  D. Roy,et al.  An overview of MODIS Land data processing and product status , 2002 .

[64]  Martha C. Anderson,et al.  Vegetation water content mapping using Landsat data derived normalized difference water index for corn and soybeans , 2004 .

[65]  James P. Hollinger,et al.  SSM/I instrument evaluation , 1990 .

[66]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Validation of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Soil Moisture Products , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[67]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Soil moisture retrieval from AMSR-E , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[68]  J. Mahfouf,et al.  The Influence of Soil and Vegetation on the Development of Mesoscale Circulations , 1987 .

[69]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  High-resolution change estimation of soil moisture using L-band radiometer and Radar observations made during the SMEX02 experiments , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[70]  C. Deser,et al.  Diurnal and semidiurnal variations in global surface wind and divergence fields , 1999 .

[71]  E. Njoku,et al.  Passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture , 1996 .

[72]  E. Njoku,et al.  Vegetation and surface roughness effects on AMSR-E land observations , 2006 .

[73]  Alan H. Strahler,et al.  Global land cover mapping from MODIS: algorithms and early results , 2002 .

[74]  E. Engman.  Soil Moisture: The Hydrologic Interface Between Surface and Ground Waters , 1997 .

[75]  T. Jackson,et al.  Remote sensing applications to hydrology: soil moisture , 1996 .

[76]  T. Schmugge,et al.  An Empirical Model for the Complex Dielectric Permittivity of Soils as a Function of Water Content , 1980, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[77]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  The multi‐institution North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS): Utilizing multiple GCIP products and partners in a continental distributed hydrological modeling system , 2004 .

[78]  Li Li,et al.  WindSat soil moisture algorithm and validation , 2007, 2007 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[79]  Charles A. Laymon,et al.  Land cover-based optimal deconvolution of PALS L-band microwave brightness temperatures , 2004 .

[80]  Thomas T. Warner,et al.  Sensitivity of the Great Plains Severe-Storm Environment to Soil-Moisture Distribution , 1987 .

[81]  T. Schmugge,et al.  Vegetation effects on the microwave emission of soils , 1991 .

[82]  Venkat Lakshmi,et al.  Soil moisture retrieval using the passive/active L- and S-band radar/radiometer , 2003, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[83]  Da‐Lin Zhang,et al.  A High-Resolution Model of the Planetary Boundary Layer—Sensitivity Tests and Comparisons with SESAME-79 Data , 1982 .

[84]  Eric F. Wood,et al.  Evaluation of Special Sensor Microwave/Imager Satellite Data for Regional Soil Moisture Estimation over the Red River Basin , 1997 .

[85]  S. Running,et al.  Global products of vegetation leaf area and fraction absorbed PAR from year one of MODIS data , 2002 .

[86]  Emanuele Santi,et al.  A multifrequency algorithm for the retrieval of soil moisture on a large scale using microwave data from SMMR and SSM/I satellites , 2001, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[87]  Z. Shuwen,et al.  Estimating the soil moisture profile by assimilating near-surface observations with the ensemble Kaiman filter (EnKF) , 2005 .

[88]  Fawwaz Ulaby,et al.  Preliminaly Evaluation of the SIR-B Response to Soil Moisture, Surface Roughness, and Crop Canopy Cover , 1986, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[89]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Soil moisture retrieval using the C-band polarimetric scanning radiometer during the Southern Great Plains 1999 Experiment , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[90]  Scott A. Isard,et al.  A Soil Moisture Climatology of Illinois , 1994 .

[91]  J. D. Tarpley,et al.  Evaluation of the North American Land Data Assimilation System over the southern Great Plains during the warm season , 2003 .

[92]  Jiancheng Shi,et al.  The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) Mission , 2010, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[93]  F. Ulaby,et al.  Microwave Dielectric Behavior of Wet Soil-Part II: Dielectric Mixing Models , 1985, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[94]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Microwave remote sensing of soil moisture for estimation of profile soil property , 1998 .

[95]  Ahmad Al Bitar,et al.  An Analytical Model of Evaporation Efficiency for Unsaturated Soil Surfaces with an Arbitrary Thickness , 2011 .

[96]  T. Carlson,et al.  Thermal remote sensing of surface soil water content with partial vegetation cover for incorporation into climate models , 1995 .

[97]  Adrian K. Fung,et al.  Backscattering from a randomly rough dielectric surface , 1992, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[98]  Richard K. Moore,et al.  Microwave Remote Sensing, Active and Passive , 1982 .

[99]  T. Carlson,et al.  On the relation between NDVI, fractional vegetation cover, and leaf area index , 1997 .

[100]  W. Wagner,et al.  An Intercomparison of ERS-Scat and AMSR-E Soil Moisture Observations with Model Simulations over France , 2009 .

[101]  Venkat Lakshmi,et al.  Use of the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) to retrieve soil moisture and surface temperature over the central United States , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[102]  Peizhen Zhang,et al.  Research on the geometry of shear fracture zones , 1984 .

[103]  Seungbum Hong,et al.  The influence of the land surface on hydrometeorology and ecology: new advances from modeling and satellite remote sensing , 2011 .

[104]  Jean-Pierre Wigneron,et al.  Multidimensional Disaggregation of Land Surface Temperature Using High-Resolution Red, Near-Infrared, Shortwave-Infrared, and Microwave-L Bands , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[105]  Pascale C. Dubois,et al.  Measuring soil moisture with imaging radars , 1995, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[106]  Thomas J. Jackson,et al.  Retrieval of Soil Moisture and Vegetation Water Content Using SSM/I Data over a Corn and Soybean Region , 2005 .

[107]  T. Karl,et al.  Decreasing Diurnal Temperature Range in the United States and Canada from 1941 through 1980. , 1984 .

[108]  Yang Du,et al.  Sensitivity to soil moisture by active and passive microwave sensors , 2000, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[109]  Venkat Lakshmi,et al.  Sensitivity, spatial heterogeneity, and scaling of C-band microwave brightness temperatures for land hydrology studies , 2002, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[110]  Philippe Richaume,et al.  Disaggregation of SMOS Soil Moisture in Southeastern Australia , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing.

[111]  V. Lakshmi,et al.  Characterizing subpixel variability of low resolution radiometer derived soil moisture using high resolution radar data , 2008 .

[112]  A. Al Bitar,et al.  An improved algorithm for disaggregating microwave-derived soil moisture based on red, near-infrared and thermal-infrared data , 2010 .

[113]  Bradley G. Illston,et al.  Seasonal to interannual variations of soil moisture measured in Oklahoma , 2004 .

[114]  Syukuro Manabe,et al.  The Influence of Soil Wetness on Near-Surface Atmospheric Variability , 1989 .

[115]  T. Jackson,et al.  III. Measuring surface soil moisture using passive microwave remote sensing , 1993 .

[116]  Inez Y. Fung,et al.  A mechanism for the influence of vegetation on the response of the diurnal temperature range to changing climate , 2000 .

[117]  Lifeng Luo,et al.  An intercomparison of soil moisture fields in the North American Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS) , 2003 .