Combining satellite observations to develop a daily global soil moisture product for a wide range of applications

  • Enenkel M
  • Reimer C
  • Dorigo W
  • et al.
ISSN: 1812-2116
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Abstract

The soil moisture dataset that is generated via the Climate Change Initiative (CCI) of the European Space Agency (ESA) (ESA CCI SM) is a popular research product. It is composed of observations from nine different satellites and aims to exploit the individual strengths of active (radar) and passive (radiometer) sensors, thereby providing surface soil moisture estimates at a spatial resolution of 0.25°. However, the annual updating cycle limits the use of the ESA CCI SM dataset for operational applications. Therefore, this study proposes an adaptation of the ESA CCI processing chain for daily global updates via satellite-derived near real-time (NRT) soil moisture observations. In order to extend the ESA CCI SM dataset from 1978 to present we use NRT observations from the Advanced SCATterometer on-board the MetOp satellites and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 on-board GCOM-W. Since these NRT observations do not incorporate the latest algorithmic updates, parameter databases, and intercalibration efforts, by nature they offer a lower quality than reprocessed offline datasets. Our findings indicate that, despite issues in arid regions, the new "CCI NRT" dataset shows a good correlation with ESA CCI SM. The average global correlation coefficient between CCI NRT and ESA CCI SM (Pearson's R) is 0.8. An initial validation with 40 in-situ observations in France, Kenya, Senegal and Kenya yields an average R of 0.58 and 0.49 for ESA CCI SM and CCI NRT respectively. In summary, the CCI NRT dataset is getting ready for operational use, supporting applications such as drought and flood monitoring, weather forecasting or agricultural applications.

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APA

Enenkel, M., Reimer, C., Dorigo, W., Wagner, W., Pfeil, I., Parinussa, R., & De Jeu, R. (2015). Combining satellite observations to develop a daily global soil moisture product for a wide range of applications. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences Discussions, 12(11), 11549–11589. Retrieved from http://www.hydrol-earth-syst-sci-discuss.net/12/11549/2015/

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