The effects of scene heterogeneity on soil moisture retrieval from passive microwave data

Ian J. Davenport, Melody J. Sandells, Robert J. Gurney

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Citations (Scopus)
23 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The τ–ω model of microwave emission from soil and vegetation layers is widely used to estimate soil moisture content from passive microwave observations. Its application to prospective satellite-based observations aggregating several thousand square kilometres requires understanding of the effects of scene heterogeneity. The effects of heterogeneity in soil surface roughness, soil moisture, water area and vegetation density on the retrieval of soil moisture from simulated single- and multi-angle observing systems were tested. Uncertainty in water area proved the most serious problem for both systems, causing errors of a few percent in soil moisture retrieval. Single-angle retrieval was largely unaffected by the other factors studied here. Multiple-angle retrievals errors around one percent arose from heterogeneity in either soil roughness or soil moisture. Errors of a few percent were caused by vegetation heterogeneity. A simple extension of the model vegetation representation was shown to reduce this error substantially for scenes containing a range of vegetation types.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1494-1502
Number of pages9
JournalAdvances in Water Resources
Volume31
Issue number11
Early online date22 Jun 2008
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Nov 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Passive microwave
  • Soil moisture
  • Scene heterogeneity
  • Roughness
  • Vegetation
  • Water

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