Soil moisture retrievals from biangular L-band passive microwave observations

A simple approach for correcting the effect of vegetation in the estimation of soil moisture (w/sub S/) from L-band passive microwave observations is presented in this study. The approach is based on statistical relationships, calibrated from simulated datasets, which requires only two observations made at distinct incidence angles (/spl theta//sub 1/,/spl theta//sub 2/). A sensitivity study was carried out, and best retrieval remote sensing configurations, in terms of polarization and couple of incidence angles (/spl theta//sub 1/,/spl theta//sub 2/), were investigated. Best estimations of w/sub S/ could be made at H polarization, for /spl theta//sub 1/ varying between 15/spl deg/ and 30/spl deg/, and with a difference (/spl theta//sub 2/-/spl theta//sub 1/) larger than 30/spl deg/. The method was tested against two experimental datasets acquired over crop fields (soybean and wheat). The average accuracy in the soil moisture retrievals during the whole crop cycle was found to be about 0.05 m/sup 3//m/sup 3/ for both crops.     

中国西部地区基于经验模型的土壤水分反演

地表土壤水分含量的时空分布信息是十分重要的,常常作为水文模型、气候模型、生态模型的输入参数,同时,也是干旱预报、农作物估产等工作的重要指标。被动微波遥感是监测土壤含水量最有效的手段之一。相比红外与可见光,它具有波长长,穿透能力强的优势。相比主动微波雷达,被动微波辐射计具有监测面积大、周期短,受粗糙度影响小,对土壤水分更为敏感,算法更为成熟的优势。目前,已研究出许多反演土壤水分的方法.本课题的主要内容是借助AMSR-E土壤水分影像数据、MODIS归一化植被指数(NDVI)影像数据和MODIS分类影像数据,利用ENVI软件进行遥感图像数据处理,运用统计分析方法建立NDVI与土壤水分的经验模型,研究中国西部地区稀疏植被覆盖区土壤水分的反演。     

Influence of surface and vegetation characteristics on C-band radar measurements for soil moisture content

Soil moisture estimation using microwave remote sensing faces challenges of the segregation of influences mainly from roughness and vegetation. Under static surface conditions, it was found that Radarsat C-band SAR shows reasonably good correlation and sensitivity with changing soil moisture. Dynamic surface and vegetation conditions are supposed to result in a substantial reduction in radar sensitivity to soil moisture. A C-band scatterometer system (5.2 GHz) with a multi-polarization and multi-angular configuration was used 12 times to sense the soil moisture over a tall vegetated grass field. A score of vegetation and soil parameters were recorded on every occasion of the experiment. Three radar backscattering models Viz., Integral Equation Model (IEM), an empirical model and a volume scattering model, have been used to predict the backscattering phenomena. The volume scattering model, using the Distorted Born Approximation, is found to predict the backscattering phenomena reasonably well. But the surface scattering models are expectedly found to be inadequate for the purpose. The temporal variation of soil moisture does show good empirical relationship with the observed radar backscattering. But as the vegetation biomass increases, the radar shows higher sensitivity to the vegetation parameters compared to surface characteristics. A sensitivity analysis of the volume scattering model for all the parameters also reveals that the radar is more sensitive to plant parameters under high biomass conditions, particularly vegetation water content, but the sensitivity to surface characteristics, particularly to soil moisture, is also appreciable.     

综合主动和被动微波数据监测土壤水分变化

微波遥感测量土壤水分的方法主要分主动和被动两种，它们都是基于干燥土壤和水体之间介电常数的巨大差异。估算植被覆盖土壤表面土壤水分必须要考虑地表粗糙度和植被覆盖影响的问题。植被覆盖土壤表面的后向散射包括来自植被的体散射，来自地表的面散射和植被与地表间的交互作用散射项。本研究建立了一个半经验公式模型，用来计算体散射项，综合时间序列的主动和被动微波数据，消除植被覆盖的影响，估算地表土壤水分的变化状况。并应用1997年美国SGP‘97综合实验中的机载800m分辨辐射计ESTAR数据计算表面反射系数，综合Radarsat的SCAN-SAR数据得到体散射项，然后，由NOAA/AVHRR和TM计算得到的NDVI值加权分配50m分辨率的体散射项，最后计算50m分辨率的表面反射系数的变化值，从而得到土壤水分的变化情况，验证数据表明该计算结果与实测值一致。     

An Assessment of QuikSCAT Ku-Band Scatterometer Data for Soil Moisture Sensitivity

The QuikSCAT enhanced (2.225-km) backscattering product is investigated for sensitivity to changes in soil moisture and its potential for spatial disaggregation of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) soil moisture. Specifically, an active–passive methodology based on temporal change detection is tested using data from the 2006 National Airborne Field Experiment data set. This campaign was carried out from October 29 to November 20, 2006 in a 60 km $times$ 40 km area of the Murrumbidgee catchment, southeast Australia. Temporal change detection analysis and accuracy in terms of spatial pattern distribution throughout the domain were assessed using a passive microwave airborne product derived from the Polarimetric L-band Multibeam Radiometer at 1-km spatial resolution. QuikSCAT–AMSR-E intercomparisons indicated higher correlations when using C-band observations. The greatest sensitivity to soil moisture was observed when using V-polarized backscatter measurement. While backscattering data showed adequate temporal sensitivity to changes in soil moisture due to precipitation events, the spatial agreement was complicated by the presence of irrigation and standing water (rice fields). This resulted in low Cramer's Phi values (less than 0.06), which were used as a measure of spatial correspondence in terms of change in soil moisture and backscatter. In addition, the high QuikSCAT sensor frequency and existence of noise in the observed data contributed to the observed discrepancies.      

Soil moisture variability over Odra watershed: Comparison between SMOS and GLDAS data

Monitoring of temporal and spatial soil moisture variability is an important issue, both from practical and scientific point of view. It is well known that passive, L-band, radiometric measurements provide best soil moisture estimates. Unfortunately as it was observed during Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, which was specially dedicated to measure soil moisture, these measurements suffer significant data loss. It is caused mainly by radio frequency interference (RFI) which strongly contaminates Central Europe and even in particularly unfavorable conditions, might prevent these data from being used for regional or watershed scale analysis. Nevertheless, it is highly awaited by researchers to receive statistically significant information on soil moisture over the area of a big watershed. One of such watersheds, the Odra (Oder) river watershed, lies in three European countries – Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic. The area of the Odra river watershed is equal to 118,861 km² making it the second most important river in Poland as well as one of the most significant one in Central Europe.This paper examines the SMOS soil moisture data in the Odra river watershed in the period from 2010 to 2012. This attempt was made to check the possibility of assessing, from the low spatial resolution observations of SMOS, useful information that could be exploited for practical aims in watershed scale, for example, in water storage models even while moderate RFI takes place. Such studies, performed over the area of a large watershed, were recommended by researchers in order to obtain statistically significant results. To meet these expectations, Centre Aval de Traitement des Donnes SMOS (CATDS), 3-days averaged data, together with Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) National Centers for Environmental Prediction/Oregon State University/Air Force/Hydrologic Research Lab (NOAH) model 0.25 soil moisture values were used for statistical analyses and mutual comparisons.The results obtained using various statistical tools unveil high scientific potential of CATDS SMOS data to study soil moisture over the Odra river watershed. This was also confirmed by reasonable agreement between results derived from CATDS SMOS Ascending and GLDAS data sets. This agreement was achieved mainly by using these data spatially averaged over the whole watershed area, and for observations performed in the period longer than three-day averaging time. Comparisons of separate three-day data in a given pixel position, or at smaller areas would be difficult because of data gaps. Hence, the results of the work suggest that despite of RFI interferences, SMOS observations can provide effective input for analysis of soil moisture at regional scales. Moreover, it was shown that CATDS SMOS soil moisture data are better correlated with rainfall rate than GLDAS ones.     

闪电河流域水循环和能量平衡遥感综合试验

遥感试验是进行遥感原理的验证、遥感模型与反演方法的发展、遥感产品的真实性检验,推动卫星计划的论证实施及其观测在地球系统科学中应用的重要途径。闪电河流域水循环和能量平衡遥感综合试验以滦河上游闪电河流域为核心试验区,以地球表层系统的水循环过程和能量平衡为研究对象,旨在通过天—空—地一体化的观测手段,针对不同典型地表类型开展全波段主被动协同遥感观测,研究异质地表和山地条件下像元尺度遥感关键参量的观测方案,研究重要水热参量的遥感方法及其同陆面/水文过程模型的结合,支撑国家民用空间基础设施和空间科学先导专项相关卫星计划的论证实施。其中,航空飞行遥感试验搭载L波段主被动一体化微波载荷、双角度热红外相机、四波段多光谱相机和高光谱成像仪进行协同观测,实现了土壤水分、组分温度、植被含水量、叶面积指数等地表参数以及湖泊、水库、湿地等的遥感监测;地面同步观测试验利用车载微波辐射计、地基雷达和光谱仪进行了典型地物如裸土、植被、水体、人工目标等的遥感观测,并按照样区—样方—样点的多尺度嵌套方案进行了地表参数的同步采样,获取了该地区关键地表参数的短时期时空变化特征;同时配合卫星和机载观测,在闪电河流域完成了土壤温湿度、地表水热通量、地表辐射四分量、降水等气象要素的地面观测网络的建设,为验证地表辐射/散射遥感模型,发展、优化和验证水热参量遥感反演算法,研究地表水热参量尺度效应与尺度转化问题提供了重要平台,将促进陆表能量与水分交换过程的理解及其对全球变化的作用和反馈机制的研究。     

GNSS信号土壤衰减模型的试验验证方法

GNSS（global navigation satellite system）信号在土壤中的衰减情况对于研究GNSS反射信号的有效遥感深度具有重要意义。本文通过试验研究了北斗信号与GPS（global positioning system）信号在土壤中的衰减情况。在试验设计上将GNSS天线置入土壤中并不断改变天线上方的土壤厚度与湿度以采集GNSS信号的功率衰减数据,最后利用这些数据反演土壤湿度以对GNSS信号土壤衰减模型进行验证。试验结果表明,土壤能够使GNSS信号发生明显的衰减。土壤的湿度值与厚度值越大,GNSS信号功率衰减越严重。在黏土土质,土壤湿度为0.15~0.30 cm³/cm³的情况下,当土壤厚度达到21 cm时,GNSS信号功率已衰减至无法被GNSS接收机测出。进一步根据GNSS信号衰减模型反演土壤湿度,结果显示,模型在土壤厚度大于等于10 cm、卫星仰角高于50°的情况下较为精确,此时利用北斗B1信号与GPS L1信号反演土壤湿度的均方根误差分别小于0.04 cm³/cm³与0.09 cm³/cm³。     

Improved Understanding of Soil Surface Roughness Parameterization for L-Band Passive Microwave Soil Moisture Retrieval

Surface roughness parameterization plays an important role in soil moisture retrieval from passive microwave observations. This letter investigates the parameterization of surface roughness in the retrieval algorithm adopted by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity mission, making use of experimental airborne and ground data from the National Airborne Field Experiment held in Australia in 2005. The surface roughness parameter is retrieved from high-resolution (60 m) airborne data in different soil moisture conditions, using the ground soil moisture as input of the model. The effect of surface roughness on the emitted signal is found to change with the soil moisture conditions with a law different from that proposed in previous studies. The magnitude of this change is found to be related to soil textural properties: in clay soils, the effect of surface roughness is higher in intermediate wetness conditions (0.2–0.3 v/v) and decreases on both the dry and wet ends. Consequently, this letter calls for a rethink of surface roughness parameterization in microwave emission modeling.      

Impact of sub-pixel heterogeneity on modelled brightness temperature for an agricultural region

Knowledge of sub-pixel heterogeneity, particularly at the passive microwave scale, can improve the brightness temperature (and ultimately the soil moisture) estimation. However, the impact of surface heterogeneity (in terms of soil moisture, soil temperature and vegetation water content) on brightness temperature in an agricultural setting is relatively unknown. The Soil Moisture Active Passive Validation Experiment 2012 (SMAPVEX12) provided an opportunity to evaluate sub-pixel heterogeneity at the scale of a Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) or the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radiometer footprint using field measured data. The first objective of this study was to determine if accounting for surface heterogeneity reduced the error between estimated brightness temperature (T_b) and T_b measured by SMOS. It was found that when accounting for variation in surface soil moisture, temperature and vegetation water content within the pixel footprint, the error between the modelled T_b and the measured T_b was less than if a homogeneous pixel were modelled. The correlation between the surface parameters and the error associated with not accounting for surface heterogeneity were investigated. It was found that there was low to moderate correlation between the error and the coefficient of variance associated with the measured soil moisture, soil temperature and vegetation volumetric water content during the field campaign. However, it was found that the correlations changed depending on the stage of vegetation growth and the amount of time following a precipitation event. At the start of the field campaign (following a precipitation event), there was strong correlation between the error and all three surface parameters (r ≥ 0.75). Following a precipitation event close to the middle of the field campaign (during which there was rapid growth in vegetation), there was strong correlation between the error and the variability in vegetation water content (r = 0.89), moderate correlation with soil moisture (r = 0.61) and low correlation with soil temperature (r = 0.26).     

Using Passive Microwave Response to Soil Moisture Change for Soil Mapping: A Case Study for the Livingstone Creek Catchment

The 46-$hbox{km}^{2}$ Livingstone Creek Catchment in southeastern Australia was flown with a passive microwave airborne remote sensor four times throughout the three-week National Airborne Field Experiment in 2006, with a spatial resolution of $sim$200 m. Both continuous and discrete measurements of soil moisture were taken to help with interpretation of results. The catchment was experiencing extreme drought conditions leading up to the experiment, and as a result, ground cover in the catchment was minimal with many paddocks consisting of sparse dry stubble and grass. During the experiment period of November 2006, 30 mm of rainfall occurred, with the catchment going from parched dry conditions to surface wet conditions and back to dry conditions again in a short period of time. Changes in moisture responses observed by the airborne passive microwave sensor were field verified to reflect the different geology, soil, and landform elements of the catchment. Consequently, this study suggests that passive microwave remote sensing has potential as a tool to assist with soil mapping, through detecting changes in soil moisture spatial and temporal patterns.      

Intercomparison of two trapezoid-based soil moisture downscaling methods using three scaling factors

This paper compared two soil moisture downscaling methods using three scaling factors. Level 3 soil moisture product of advanced microwave scanning radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) is downscaled from 25 to 1?km. The downscaled results are compared with the soil moisture observations from polarimetric scanning radiometer (PSR) microwave radiometer and field sampling. The results show that (1) the scaling factor of normalized soil thermal inertia (NSTIs) and vegetation temperature condition index (VTCI) are better than soil evaporative efficiency in reflecting soil moisture; (2) for method 1, NSTIS is the best in the downscaling of soil moisture. For method 2, VTCI is the best; (3) no significant differences of the correlation coefficients (R²) and the biases were found between the two methods for the same scaling factors. However, method 2 shows a better potential than method 1 in the time-series applications of the downscaling of soil moisture; (4) compared with the relationship between the area-averaged soil moisture of AMSR-E and that of PSR, R² of the 6 sets of the downscaled soil moisture almost do not decrease, which suggests the validity of the downscaling of soil moisture with the two downscaling methods using the three scaling factors.     

土壤湿度微波遥感监测研究进展

土壤湿度是农业生产的重要影响因子,获取土壤湿度信息以制定人工干预调节措施是稳固生产的重要保证,实时、有效地监测土壤墒情显得尤为重要。利用遥感数据反演土壤湿度有多种方法,微波遥感法被认为是目前最佳的监测方法。本文总结了被动、主动微波土壤湿度遥感监测的主要模型、方法及其优缺点和适用范围,分析了雷达遥感监测土壤湿度的最优参数选取等,展望了微波遥感监测土壤湿度的应用前景,以期为土壤湿度微波遥感监测研究提供参考和借鉴。     

Parameterization of the Land Parameter Retrieval Model for L-Band Observations Using the NAFE'05 Data Set

The Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) has been successfully applied to retrieve soil moisture from space-borne passive microwave observations at C-, X-, or Ku-band and high incidence angles (50 $^{circ}$–55$^{circ}$ ). However, LPRM had never been applied to lower angles or to L-band observations. This letter describes the parameterization and performance of LPRM using aircraft and ground data from the National Airborne Field Experiment 2005. This experiment was undertaken in November 2005 in the Goulburn River catchment, which is located in southeastern Australia. It was found that model convergence could only be achieved with a temporally dynamic roughness. The roughness was parameterized according to incidence angle and soil moisture. These findings were integrated in LPRM, resulting in one uniform parameterization for all sites. The parameterized LPRM correlated well with field observations at 5-cm depth ($r = 0.93$ based on all sites) with a negligible bias and an accuracy of 0.06 $hbox{m}^{3}cdot hbox{m}^{-3}$. These results demonstrate comparable retrieval accuracies as the official SMOS soil-moisture retrieval algorithm (L-MEB), but without the need for the ancillary data that are required by L-MEB. However, care should be taken when using the proposed dynamic roughness model as it is based on a limited data set, and a more thorough evaluation is necessary to test the validity of this new approach to a wider range of conditions.      

被动微波土壤水分反演模型研究

在分析现有地表辐射模型的基础上,分析了被动微波遥感的辐射传输方程,并且对辐射传输过程的主要因素进行了分析.最后对地面辐射进行了介绍,并针对被动微波AMSR数据提出了地表土壤水分反演的模型.     

光学与微波数据协同反演农田区土壤水分

光学和微波协同遥感反演对于提高农田土壤水分遥感反演精度十分重要。本文采用SMEX02数据集,研究了L波段土壤发射率与地表土壤水分之间的关系,分析了地面植被覆盖对L波段土壤发射率与地表水分之关系的影响规律,推导了以L波段土壤发射率和归一化植被指数NDVI为自变量的土壤水分反演模型。研究表明:L波段土壤发射率与地表土壤水分之间的相关性随NDVI的增加而下降。验证结果表明,本文算法相对常规经验算法,土壤水分反演精度明显提高,H极化条件下,土壤水分的反演精度RMSE由0.0553提高到0.0407,相关系数R2由0.70提高到0.81;V极化条件下,反演精度RMSE由0.0452提高到0.0348,相关系数R2由0.79提高到0.86。     

目标分解技术在植被覆盖条件下土壤水分计算中的应用

目标分解技术利用协方差距阵的特征值和特征矢量，将极化雷达后向散射测量值分解为单向散射，双向散射和交叉极化散射三个分量，并建立了植被覆盖地表的一阶物理离散散射模型。通过分解的各分量与该模型的比较，建立重轨极化雷达测量数据估算土壤水分的方法，采用Washita‘92实验区多时相全极化L波段JPL/AIRSAR图像雷达测量数据，利用分解的散射测量值，我们评估了在同一入射角，单频（L波段），多路条件下，分解理论在进行土壤水分估计时减少植被影响的能力。结果表明利用目标分解理论和重轨极化雷达数据可以估算植被覆盖区域土壤水分的变化情况。     

The contribution of multitemporal SAR data in assessing hydrological parameters

The sensitivity of radar backscattering to the principal hydrological parameters, such as vegetation biomass, soil moisture, and surface roughness, is discussed. Results obtained by using multifrequency synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data measured by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar, Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C, and European Remote Sensing 1/2 sensors are summarized. The sensitivity of L- and C-bands to spatial variations of plant and soil parameters is masked by the presence of surface roughness, which in turn affects the radar signal. However, from the observation of data collected at different dates and averaged over a relatively wide area that includes several fields, the correlation to soil moisture and vegetation biomass is found to be significant, since the effects of spatial variations are smoothed. On the other hand, the sensitivity to surface roughness becomes appreciable when multitemporal data are averaged in time, thus reducing the effects of temporal moisture variations.     

AMSR微波遥感数据进行土壤湿度的计算机反演

为了有效解决大尺度区域土壤水分时、空间变化监测的问题,在总结了被动微波遥感反演土壤湿度规律的基础上,基于先进的AMSR星载被动微波遥感数据,提出了利用双谱模型计算土壤表面发射率的计算机算法。首先需要由双站散射系数计算反射率和发射率,然后应用人工神经网络反演土壤湿度,实现了在随机粗糙面状况下基于被动微波遥感的土壤表面水分反演,并在实验区进行了成功的应用。