Using a Microwave Emission Model to Estimate Soil Moisture from ESTAR Observations during SGP99

Abstract The 1999 Southern Great Plains Hydrology Experiment (SGP99) provides comprehensive datasets for evaluating microwave remote sensing of soil moisture algorithms that involve complex physical properties of soils and vegetation. The Land Surface Microwave Emission Model (LSMEM) is presented and used to retrieve soil moisture from brightness temperatures collected by the airborne Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer (ESTAR) L-band radiometer. Soil moisture maps for the SGP99 domain are retrieved using LSMEM, surface temperatures computed using the Variable Infiltration Capacity (VIC) land surface model, standard soil datasets, and vegetation parameters estimated through remote sensing. The retrieved soil moisture is validated using field-scale and area-averaged soil moisture collected as part of the SGP99 experiment, and had a rms range for the area-averaged soil moisture of 1.8%–2.8% volumetric soil moisture.

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