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Global Evaluation of SMAP/Sentinel-1 Soil Moisture Products

Mohseni, Farzane LU ; Mirmazloumi, S. Mohammad ; Mokhtarzade, Mehdi ; Jamali, Sadegh LU orcid and Homayouni, Saeid (2022) In Remote Sensing 14(18).
Abstract
SMAP/Sentinel-1 soil moisture is the latest SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) product derived from synergistic utilization of the radiometry observations of SMAP and radar backscattering data of Sentinel-1. This product is the first and only global soil moisture (SM) map at 1 km and 3 km spatial resolutions. In this paper, we evaluated the SMAP/Sentinel-1 SM product from different viewpoints to better understand its quality, advantages, and likely limitations. A comparative analysis of this product and in situ measurements, for the time period March 2015 to January 2022, from 35 dense and sparse SM networks and 561 stations distributed around the world was carried out. We examined the effects of land cover, vegetation fraction, water... (More)
SMAP/Sentinel-1 soil moisture is the latest SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) product derived from synergistic utilization of the radiometry observations of SMAP and radar backscattering data of Sentinel-1. This product is the first and only global soil moisture (SM) map at 1 km and 3 km spatial resolutions. In this paper, we evaluated the SMAP/Sentinel-1 SM product from different viewpoints to better understand its quality, advantages, and likely limitations. A comparative analysis of this product and in situ measurements, for the time period March 2015 to January 2022, from 35 dense and sparse SM networks and 561 stations distributed around the world was carried out. We examined the effects of land cover, vegetation fraction, water bodies, urban areas, soil characteristics, and seasonal climatic conditions on the performance of active–passive SMAP/Sentinel-1 in estimating the SM. We also compared the performance metrics of enhanced SMAP (9 km) and SMAP/Sentinel-1 products (3 km) to analyze the effects of the active–passive disaggregation algorithm on various features of the SMAP SM maps. Results showed satisfactory agreement between SMAP/Sentinel-1 and in situ SM measurements for most sites (r values between 0.19 and 0.95 and ub-RMSE between 0.03 and 0.17), especially for dense sites without representativeness errors. Thanks to the vegetation effect correction applied in the active–passive algorithm, the SMAP/Sentinel-1 product had the highest correlation with the reference data in grasslands and croplands. Results also showed that the accuracy of the SMAP/Sentinel-1 SM product in different networks is independent of the presence of water bodies, urban areas, and soil types. (Less)
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author
; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Remote Sensing
volume
14
issue
18
article number
4624
publisher
MDPI AG
external identifiers
  • scopus:85138682222
ISSN
2072-4292
DOI
10.3390/rs14184624
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
3f245ddc-add7-42ae-adbe-200d081d461e
alternative location
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/14/18/4624
date added to LUP
2022-09-19 09:17:15
date last changed
2022-12-28 14:12:26
@article{3f245ddc-add7-42ae-adbe-200d081d461e,
  abstract     = {{SMAP/Sentinel-1 soil moisture is the latest SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) product derived from synergistic utilization of the radiometry observations of SMAP and radar backscattering data of Sentinel-1. This product is the first and only global soil moisture (SM) map at 1 km and 3 km spatial resolutions. In this paper, we evaluated the SMAP/Sentinel-1 SM product from different viewpoints to better understand its quality, advantages, and likely limitations. A comparative analysis of this product and in situ measurements, for the time period March 2015 to January 2022, from 35 dense and sparse SM networks and 561 stations distributed around the world was carried out. We examined the effects of land cover, vegetation fraction, water bodies, urban areas, soil characteristics, and seasonal climatic conditions on the performance of active–passive SMAP/Sentinel-1 in estimating the SM. We also compared the performance metrics of enhanced SMAP (9 km) and SMAP/Sentinel-1 products (3 km) to analyze the effects of the active–passive disaggregation algorithm on various features of the SMAP SM maps. Results showed satisfactory agreement between SMAP/Sentinel-1 and in situ SM measurements for most sites (r values between 0.19 and 0.95 and ub-RMSE between 0.03 and 0.17), especially for dense sites without representativeness errors. Thanks to the vegetation effect correction applied in the active–passive algorithm, the SMAP/Sentinel-1 product had the highest correlation with the reference data in grasslands and croplands. Results also showed that the accuracy of the SMAP/Sentinel-1 SM product in different networks is independent of the presence of water bodies, urban areas, and soil types.}},
  author       = {{Mohseni, Farzane and Mirmazloumi, S. Mohammad and Mokhtarzade, Mehdi and Jamali, Sadegh and Homayouni, Saeid}},
  issn         = {{2072-4292}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{09}},
  number       = {{18}},
  publisher    = {{MDPI AG}},
  series       = {{Remote Sensing}},
  title        = {{Global Evaluation of SMAP/Sentinel-1 Soil Moisture Products}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs14184624}},
  doi          = {{10.3390/rs14184624}},
  volume       = {{14}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}