scholarly journals Vegetation Optical Depth and Soil Moisture Retrieved from L-Band Radiometry over the Growth Cycle of a Winter Wheat

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1637 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Meyer ◽  
Lutz Weihermüller ◽  
Harry Vereecken ◽  
François Jonard
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Growing Season ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Vegetation Height ◽  
L Band

L-band radiometer measurements were performed at the Selhausen remote sensing field laboratory (Germany) over the entire growing season of a winter wheat stand. L-band microwave observations were collected over two different footprints within a homogenous winter wheat stand in order to disentangle the emissions originating from the soil and from the vegetation. Based on brightness temperature (TB) measurements performed over an area consisting of a soil surface covered by a reflector (i.e., to block the radiation from the soil surface), vegetation optical depth (τ) information was retrieved using the tau-omega (τ-ω) radiative transfer model. The retrieved τ appeared to be clearly polarization dependent, with lower values for horizontal (H) and higher values for vertical (V) polarization. Additionally, a strong dependency of τ on incidence angle for the V polarization was observed. Furthermore, τ indicated a bell-shaped temporal evolution, with lowest values during the tillering and senescence stages, and highest values during flowering of the wheat plants. The latter corresponded to the highest amounts of vegetation water content (VWC) and largest leaf area index (LAI). To show that the time, polarization, and angle dependence is also highly dependent on the observed vegetation species, white mustard was grown during a short experiment, and radiometer measurements were performed using the same experimental setup. These results showed that the mustard canopy is more isotropic compared to the wheat vegetation (i.e., the τ parameter is less dependent on incidence angle and polarization). In a next step, the relationship between τ and in situ measured vegetation properties (VWC, LAI, total of aboveground vegetation biomass, and vegetation height) was investigated, showing a strong correlation between τ over the entire growing season and the VWC as well as between τ and LAI. Finally, the soil moisture was retrieved from TB observations over a second plot without a reflector on the ground. The retrievals were significantly improved compared to in situ measurements by using the time, polarization, and angle dependent τ as a priori information. This improvement can be explained by the better representation of the vegetation layer effect on the measured TB.

scholarly journals Potential Applications of GNSS-R Observations over Agricultural Areas: Results from the GLORI Airborne Campaign

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mehrez Zribi ◽  
Erwan Motte ◽  
Nicolas Baghdadi ◽  
Frédéric Baup ◽  
Sylvia Dayau ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Vegetation Height ◽  
Study Sites ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite ◽  
Vegetation Characteristic ◽  
Agricultural Areas

The aim of this study is to analyze the sensitivity of airborne Global Navigation Satellite System Reflectometry (GNSS-R) on soil surface and vegetation cover characteristics in agricultural areas. Airborne polarimetric GNSS-R data were acquired in the context of the GLORI’2015 campaign over two study sites in Southwest France in June and July of 2015. Ground measurements of soil surface parameters (moisture content) and vegetation characteristics (leaf area index (LAI), and vegetation height) were recorded for different types of crops (corn, sunflower, wheat, soybean, vegetable) simultaneously with the airborne GNSS-R measurements. Three GNSS-R observables (apparent reflectivity, the reflected signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), and the polarimetric ratio (PR)) were found to be well correlated with soil moisture and a major vegetation characteristic (LAI). A tau-omega model was used to explain the dependence of the GNSS-R reflectivity on both the soil moisture and vegetation parameters.

scholarly journals L-Band Vegetation Optical Depth Estimation Using Transmitted GNSS Signals: Application to GNSS-Reflectometry and Positioning

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 2352
Author(s):  
Adriano Camps ◽  
Alberto Alonso-Arroyo ◽  
Hyuk Park ◽  
Raul Onrubia ◽  
Daniel Pascual ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Elevation Angle ◽  
Depth Estimation ◽  
Beech Forest ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Vegetation Impact ◽  
L Band

At L-band (1–2 GHz), and particularly in microwave radiometry (1.413 GHz), vegetation has been traditionally modeled with the τ-ω model. This model has also been used to compensate for vegetation effects in Global Navigation Satellite Systems-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) with modest success. This manuscript presents an analysis of the vegetation impact on GPS L1 C/A (coarse acquisition code) signals in terms of attenuation and depolarization. A dual polarized instrument with commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) GPS receivers as back-ends was installed for more than a year under a beech forest collecting carrier-to-noise (C/N0) data. These data were compared to different ground-truth datasets (greenness, blueness, and redness indices, sky cover index, rain data, leaf area index or LAI, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)). The highest correlation observed is between C/N0 and NDVI data, obtaining R2 coefficients larger than 0.85 independently from the elevation angle, suggesting that for beech forest, NDVI is a good descriptor of signal attenuation at L-band, which is known to be related to the vegetation optical depth (VOD). Depolarization effects were also studied, and were found to be significant at elevation angles as large as ~50°. Data were also fit to a simple τ-ω model to estimate a single scattering albedo parameter (ω) to try to compensate for vegetation scattering effects in soil moisture retrieval algorithms using GNSS-R. It is found that, even including dependence on the elevation angle (ω(θe)), at elevation angles smaller than ~67°, the ω(θe) model is not related to the NDVI. This limits the range of elevation angles that can be used for soil moisture retrievals using GNSS-R. Finally, errors of the GPS-derived position were computed over time to assess vegetation impact on the accuracy of the positioning.

Analysis of water dynamics in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum using a multi-sensor approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Chaparro ◽  
Thomas Jagdhuber ◽  
Dara Entekhabi ◽  
María Piles ◽  
Anke Fluhrer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Leaf Area Index ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Leaf Area ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Water Storage ◽  
Water Dynamics ◽  
Area Index ◽  
L Band

<p>Changing climate patterns have increased hydrological extremes in many regions [1]. This impacts water and carbon cycles, potentially modifying vegetation processes and thus terrestrial carbon uptake. It is therefore crucial to understand the relationship between the main water pools linked to vegetation (i.e., soil moisture, plant water storage, and atmospheric water deficit), and how vegetation responds to changes of these pools. Hence, the goal of this research is to understand the water pools and fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC) and their relationship with vegetation responses.</p><p>Our study spans from April 2015 to March 2019 and is structured in two parts:</p><p>Firstly, relative water content (RWC) is estimated using a multi-sensor approach to monitor water storage in plants. This is at the core of our research approach towards water pool monitoring within SPAC. Here, we will present a RWC dataset derived from gravimetric moisture content (<em>mg</em>) estimates using the method first proposed in [2], and further validated in [3]. This allows retrieving RWC and <em>mg</em> independently from biomass influences. Here, we apply this method using a sensor synergy including (i) vegetation optical depth from SMAP L-band radiometer (L-VOD), (ii) vegetation height (VH) from ICESat-2 Lidar and (iii) vegetation volume fraction (d) from AQUARIUS L-band radar. RWC status and temporal dynamics will be discussed.</p><p>Secondly, water dynamics in the SPAC and their impact on leaf changes are analyzed. We will present a global, time-lag correlation analysis among: (i) the developed RWC maps, (ii) surface soil moisture from SMAP (SM), (iii) vapor pressure deficit (VPD; from MERRA reanalysis [4]), and (iv) leaf area index (LAI; from MODIS [5]). Resulting time-lag and correlation maps, as well as analyses of LAI dynamics as a function of SPAC, will be presented at the conference.</p><p> </p><p>References</p><p>[1] IPCC. (2013). Annex I: Atlas of global and regional climate projections. In: van Oldenborgh, et al. (Eds.) Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis (pp. 1311-1393). Cambridge University Press.</p><p>[2] Fink, A., et al. (2018). Estimating Gravimetric Moisture of Vegetation Using an Attenuation-Based Multi-Sensor Approach. In IGARSS 2018 (pp. 353-356). IEEE.</p><p>[3] Meyer, T., et al. Estimating Gravimetric Water Content of a Winter Wheat Field from L-Band Vegetation Optical Depth, Remote Sens. 2019, 11(20), 2353</p><p>[4] NASA (2019). Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2. Accessed 2020-01-14 from https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/reanalysis/MERRA-2/.</p><p>[5] Myneni, R., et al. (2015). MOD15A2H MODIS/Terra Leaf Area Index/FPAR 8-Day L4 Global 500m SIN Grid V006. Accessed 2020-01-14 from https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD15A2H.006.</p>

scholarly journals Effective roughness modelling as a tool for soil moisture retrieval from C- and L-band SAR

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 4995-5031 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Lievens ◽  
N. E. C. Verhoest ◽  
E. De Keyser ◽  
H. Vernieuwe ◽  
P. Matgen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Roughness Parameters ◽  
Effective Roughness ◽  
Soil Surface Roughness ◽  
L Band ◽  
Microwave Backscatter

Abstract. Soil moisture retrieval from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) using state-of-the-art backscatter models is not yet fully operational at present, mainly due to difficulties involved in the parameterisation of soil surface roughness. Recently, increasing interest has been drawn to the use of calibrated or effective roughness parameters, as they circumvent issues known to the parameterisation of field-measured roughness. This paper analyses effective roughness parameters derived from C- and L-band SAR observations over a large number of agricultural seedbed sites in Europe and furthermore shows that parameters may largely differ between SAR acquisitions, as they are related to the observed backscatter coefficients and variations in the local incidence angle. Therefore, a statistical model is developed that allows the estimation of effective roughness parameters from microwave backscatter observations. Subsequently, these parameters can be propagated through the Integral Equation Model (IEM) for soil moisture retrieval. It is shown that fairly accurate soil moisture results are obtained both at C- and L-band, with an RMSE ranging between 4 vol% and 6.5 vol%.

scholarly journals Assimilation of passive microwave vegetation optical depth in LDAS-Monde: a case study over the continental US

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Mucia ◽  
Bertrand Bonan ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
Yongjun Zheng ◽  
Jean-Christophe Calvet
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Gross Primary Production ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Passive Microwave ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Area Index

Abstract. The land data assimilation system, LDAS-Monde, developed by the Research Department of the French Meteorological service (Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques – CNRM) is capable of well representing Land Surface Variables (LSVs) from regional to global scales. It jointly assimilates satellite-derived observations of leaf area index (LAI) and surface soil moisture (SSM) into the Interactions between Soil Biosphere and Atmosphere (ISBA) land surface model (LSM), increasing the accuracy of the model simulations and forecasts of the LSVs. The assimilation of vegetation variables directly impacts RZSM through seven control variables consisting in soil moisture of seven soil layers from the soil surface to 1 m depth. This capability is particularly useful in dry conditions, where SSM and RZSM are decoupled to a large extent. However, this positive impact does not reach its full potential due to the low temporal availability of optical-based LAI observations, at best, every ten days, and can suffer from months of no data over regions and seasons with heavy cloud cover such as winter or monsoon conditions. In that context, this study investigates the assimilation of low frequency passive microwave vegetation optical depth (VOD), available in almost all weather conditions, as a proxy of LAI. The Vegetation Optical Depth Climate Archive (VODCA) dataset provides near-daily observations of vegetation conditions, far more frequently than optical based product such as LAI. This study's goal is to convert the more frequent X-band VOD observations into proxy-LAI observations through linear re-scaling and to assimilate them in place of direct LAI observations. Seven assimilation experiments were run from 2003 to 2018 over the contiguous United States (CONUS), with 1) no assimilation, the assimilation of 2) SSM, 3) LAI, 4) re-scaled VODX, 5) re-scaled VODX only when LAI observations available, 6) LAI + SSM, and 7) re-scaled VODX + SSM. This study analyzes these assimilation experiments by comparing to satellite derived observations and in situ measurements and is focused on the variables of LAI, SSM, gross primary production (GPP), and evapotranspiration (ET). Each experiment is driven by atmospheric forcing reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA5. Results showed improved representation of GPP and ET by assimilating re-scaled VOD in place of LAI. Additionally, the joint assimilation of vegetation related variables (i.e. LAI or re-scaled VOD) and SSM demonstrates a small improvement in the representation of soil moisture over the assimilation of any dataset by itself.

scholarly journals Effective roughness modelling as a tool for soil moisture retrieval from C- and L-band SAR

2011 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Lievens ◽  
N. E. C. Verhoest ◽  
E. De Keyser ◽  
H. Vernieuwe ◽  
P. Matgen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Soil Surface ◽  
Equation Model ◽  
Roughness Parameters ◽  
Effective Roughness ◽  
Soil Surface Roughness ◽  
L Band ◽  
Microwave Backscatter ◽  
Param Eters

Abstract. Soil moisture retrieval from Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) using state-of-the-art back\\-scatter models is not fully operational at present, mainly due to difficulties involved in the parameterisation of soil surface roughness. Recently, increasing interest has been drawn to the use of calibrated or effective roughness parameters, as they circumvent issues known to the parameterisation of field-measured roughness. This paper analyses effective roughness parameters derived from C- and L-band SAR observations over a large number of agricultural seedbed sites in Europe. It shows that param\\-eters may largely differ between SAR acquisitions, as they are related to the observed backscatter coefficients and variations in the local incidence angle. Therefore, a statistical model is developed that allows for estimating effective roughness parameters from microwave backscatter observations. Subsequently, these parameters can be propagated through the Integral Equation Model (IEM) for soil moisture retrieval. It is shown that fairly accurate soil moisture results are obtained both at C- and L-band, with an RMSE ranging between 4 vol% and 6.5 vol%.

scholarly journals Estimating Gravimetric Water Content of a Winter Wheat Field from L-Band Vegetation Optical Depth

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (20) ◽  
pp. 2353
Author(s):  
Thomas Meyer ◽  
Thomas Jagdhuber ◽  
María Piles ◽  
Anita Fink ◽  
Jennifer Grant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Winter Wheat ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Water Status ◽  
Growth Cycle ◽  
Wheat Field ◽  
Vegetation Height ◽  
Vegetation Water Content ◽  
L Band ◽  
Vegetation Water

A considerable amount of water is stored in vegetation, especially in regions with high precipitation rates. Knowledge of the vegetation water status is essential to monitor changes in ecosystem health and to assess the vegetation influence on the water budget. In this study, we develop and validate an approach to estimate the gravimetric vegetation water content (mg), defined as the amount of water [kg] per wet biomass [kg], based on the attenuation of microwave radiation through vegetation. mg is expected to be more closely related to the actual water status of a plant than the area-based vegetation water content (VWC), which expresses the amount of water [kg] per unit area [m2]. We conducted the study at the field scale over an entire growth cycle of a winter wheat field. Tower-based L-band microwave measurements together with in situ measurements of vegetation properties (i.e., vegetation height, and mg for validation) were performed. The results indicated a strong agreement between the in situ measured and retrieved mg (R2 of 0.89), with mean and standard deviation (STD) values of 0.55 and 0.26 for the in situ measured mg and 0.57 and 0.19 for the retrieved mg, respectively. Phenological changes in crop water content were captured, with the highest values of mg obtained during the growth phase of the vegetation (i.e., when the water content of the plants and the biomass were increasing) and the lowest values when the vegetation turned fully senescent (i.e., when the water content of the plant was the lowest). Comparing in situ measured mg and VWC, we found their highest agreement with an R2 of 0.95 after flowering (i.e., when the vegetation started to lose water) and their main differences with an R2 of 0.21 during the vegetative growth of the wheat vegetation (i.e., where the mg was constant and VWC increased due to structural changes in vegetation). In addition, we performed a sensitivity analysis on the vegetation volume fraction (δ), an input parameter to the proposed approach which represents the volume percentage of solid plant material in air. This δ-parameter is shown to have a distinct impact on the thermal emission at L-band, but keeping δ constant during the growth cycle of the winter wheat appeared to be valid for these mg retrievals.

scholarly journals The Value of L-Band Soil Moisture and Vegetation Optical Depth Estimates in the Prediction of Vegetation Phenology

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1343
Author(s):  
Bonan Li ◽  
Stephen P. Good ◽  
Dawn R. URycki
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Vegetation Phenology ◽  
Area Index ◽  
Model Predictions ◽  
L Band ◽  
Improved Model

Vegetation phenology is a key ecosystem characteristic that is sensitive to environmental conditions. Here, we examined the utility of soil moisture (SM) and vegetation optical depth (VOD) observations from NASA’s L-band Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission for the prediction of leaf area index (LAI), a common metric of canopy phenology. We leveraged mutual information theory to determine whether SM and VOD contain information about the temporal dynamics of LAI that is not contained in traditional LAI predictors (i.e., precipitation, temperature, and radiation) and known LAI climatology. We found that adding SMAP SM and VOD to multivariate non-linear empirical models to predict daily LAI anomalies improved model fit and reduced error by 5.2% compared with models including only traditional LAI predictors and LAI climatology (average R2 = 0.22 vs. 0.15 and unbiased root mean square error [ubRMSE] = 0.130 vs. 0.137 for cross-validated models with and without SM and VOD, respectively). SMAP SM and VOD made the more improvement in model fit in grasslands (R2 = 0.24 vs. 0.16 and ubRMSE = 0.118 vs. 0.126 [5.7% reduction] for models with and without SM and VOD, respectively); model predictions were least improved in shrublands. Analysis of feature importance indicates that LAI climatology and temperature were overall the two most informative variables for LAI anomaly prediction. SM was more important in drier regions, whereas VOD was consistently the second least important factor. Variations in total LAI were mostly explained by local daily LAI climatology. On average, the R2s and ubRMSE of total LAI predictions by the traditional drivers and its climatology are 0.81 and 0.137, respectively. Adding SMAP SM and VOD to these existing predictors improved the R2s to 0.83 (0.02 improvement in R2s) and reduced the ubRMSE to 0.13 (5.2% reduction). Though these improvements were modest on average, in locations where LAI climatology is not reflective of LAI dynamics and anomalies are larger, we find SM and VOD to be considerably more useful for LAI prediction. Overall, we find that L-band SM and VOD observations can be useful for prediction of LAI, though the informational contribution varies with land cover and environmental conditions.

Impact of temporal variations in vegetation optical depth and vegetation temperature on L-band passive soil moisture retrievals over a tropical forest using in-situ information

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 2098-2139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandro Monsiváis-Huertero ◽  
Juan Carlos Hernández-Sánchez ◽  
José Carlos Jiménez-Escalona ◽  
José Mauricio Galeana-Pizaña ◽  
Daniel Enrique Constantino-Recillas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Tropical Forest ◽  
Optical Depth ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
L Band
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document