scholarly journals SWCTI: Surface Water Content Temperature Index for Assessment of Surface Soil Moisture Status

Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 2875 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiming Hong ◽  
Wen Zhang ◽  
Changhui Yu ◽  
Dongying Zhang ◽  
Linyi Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Temperature Index ◽  
Soil Moisture Status

The vegetation supply water index (VSWI = NDVI/LST) is an effective metric estimating soil moisture in areas with moderate to dense vegetation cover. However, the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) exhibits a long water stress lag and the land surface temperature (LST), sensitive to water stress, does not contribute considerably to surface soil moisture monitoring due to the constraints of the mathematical characteristics of VSWI: LST influences VSWI less when LST value is sufficiently high. This paper mathematically analyzes the characteristics of VSWI and proposes a new operational dryness index (surface water content temperature index, SWCTI) for the assessment of surface soil moisture status. SWCTI uses the surface water content index (SWCI), which provides a more accurate estimation of surface soil moisture than that of NDVI, as the numerator and the modified surface temperature, which has a greater influence on SWCTI than that of LST, as the denominator. The validation work includes comparison of SWCTI with in situ soil moisture and other remote sensing indices. The results show SWCTI demonstrates the highest correlation with in situ soil moisture; the highest correlation R = 0.801 is found between SWCTI and the 0–5 cm soil moisture in a sandy loam. SWCTI is a functional and effective method that has a great potential in surface soil moisture monitoring.

scholarly journals Evapotranspiration and evaporation/transpiration partitioning with dual source energy balance models in agricultural lands

2018 ◽  
Vol 380 ◽  
pp. 17-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gilles Boulet ◽  
Emilie Delogu ◽  
Sameh Saadi ◽  
Wafa Chebbi ◽  
Albert Olioso ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Remote Sensing ◽  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Water Stress ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Stress Levels ◽  
Dual Source ◽  
Energy Balance Models

Abstract. EvapoTranspiration (ET) is an important component of the water cycle, especially in semi-arid lands. Its quantification is crucial for a sustainable management of scarce water resources. A way to quantify ET is to exploit the available surface temperature data from remote sensing as a signature of the surface energy balance, including the latent heat flux. Remotely sensed energy balance models enable to estimate stress levels and, in turn, the water status of most continental surfaces. The evaporation and transpiration components of ET are also just as important in agricultural water management and ecosystem health monitoring. Single temperatures can be used with dual source energy balance models but rely on specific assumptions on raw levels of plant water stress to get both components out of a single source of information. Additional information from remote sensing data are thus required, either something specifically related to evaporation (such as surface water content) or transpiration (such as PRI or fluorescence). This works evaluates the SPARSE dual source energy balance model ability to compute not only total ET, but also water stress and transpiration/evaporation components. First, the theoretical limits of the ET component retrieval are assessed through a simulation experiment using both retrieval and prescribed modes of SPARSE with the sole surface temperature. A similar work is performed with an additional constraint, the topsoil surface soil moisture level, showing the significant improvement on the retrieval. Then, a flux dataset acquired over rainfed wheat is used to check the robustness of both stress levels and ET retrievals. In particular, retrieval of the evaporation and transpiration components is assessed in both conditions (forcing by the sole temperature or the combination of temperature and soil moisture). In our example, there is no significant difference in the performance of the total ET retrieval, since the evaporation rate retrieved from the sole surface temperature is already fairly close to the one we can reconstruct from observed surface soil moisture time series, but current work is underway to test it over other plots.

scholarly journals From near-surface to root-zone soil moisture using an exponential filter: an assessment of the method based on in-situ observations and model simulations

2008 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 1323-1337 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Albergel ◽  
C. Rüdiger ◽  
T. Pellarin ◽  
J.-C. Calvet ◽  
N. Fritz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Soil Water ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Water Index ◽  
In Situ Observations

Abstract. A long term data acquisition effort of profile soil moisture is under way in southwestern France at 13 automated weather stations. This ground network was developed in order to validate remote sensing and model soil moisture estimates. In this paper, both those in situ observations and a synthetic data set covering continental France are used to test a simple method to retrieve root zone soil moisture from a time series of surface soil moisture information. A recursive exponential filter equation using a time constant, T, is used to compute a soil water index. The Nash and Sutcliff coefficient is used as a criterion to optimise the T parameter for each ground station and for each model pixel of the synthetic data set. In general, the soil water indices derived from the surface soil moisture observations and simulations agree well with the reference root-zone soil moisture. Overall, the results show the potential of the exponential filter equation and of its recursive formulation to derive a soil water index from surface soil moisture estimates. This paper further investigates the correlation of the time scale parameter T with soil properties and climate conditions. While no significant relationship could be determined between T and the main soil properties (clay and sand fractions, bulk density and organic matter content), the modelled spatial variability and the observed inter-annual variability of T suggest that a weak climate effect may exist.

scholarly journals An evapotranspiration model self-calibrated from remotely sensed surface soil moisture, land surface temperature and vegetation cover fraction: application to disaggregated SMOS and MODIS data

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bouchra Ait Hssaine ◽  
Olivier Merlin ◽  
Jamal Ezzahar ◽  
Nitu Ojha ◽  
Salah Er-raki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Energy Balance ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Land Surface Temperature ◽  
Vegetation Cover ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mean

Abstract. Thermal-based two-source energy balance modeling is very useful for estimating the land evapotranspiration (ET) at a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. However, the land surface temperature (LST) is not sufficient for constraining simultaneously both soil and vegetation flux components in such a way that assumptions (on either the soil or the vegetation fluxes) are commonly required. To avoid such assumptions, a new energy balance model (TSEB-SM) was recently developed in Ait Hssaine et al. (2018a) to integrate the microwave-derived near-surface soil moisture (SM), in addition to the thermal-derived LST and vegetation cover fraction (fc). Whereas, TSEB-SM has been recently tested using in-situ measurements, the objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance of TSEB-SM in real-life using 1 km resolution MODIS (Moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer) LST and fc data and the 1 km resolution SM data disaggregated from SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) observations by using DisPATCh. The approach is applied during a four-year period (2014–2018) over a rainfed wheat field in the Tensift basin, central Morocco, during a four-year period (2014–2018). The field was seeded for the 2014–2015 (S1), 2016–2017 (S2) and 2017–2018 (S3) agricultural season, while it was not ploughed (remained as bare soil) during the 2015–2016 (B1) agricultural season. The mean retrieved values of (arss, brss) calculated for the entire study period using satellite data are (7.32, 4.58). The daily calibrated αPT ranges between 0 and 1.38 for both S1 and S2. Its temporal variability is mainly attributed to the rainfall distribution along the agricultural season. For S3, the daily retrieved αPT remains at a mostly constant value (∼ 0.7) throughout the study period, because of the lack of clear sky disaggregated SM and LST observations during this season. Compared to eddy covariance measurements, TSEB driven only by LST and fc data significantly overestimates latent heat fluxes for the four seasons. The overall mean bias values are 119, 94, 128 and 181 W/m2 for S1, S2, S3 and B1 respectively. In contrast, these errors are much reduced when using TSEB-SM (SM and LST combined data) with the mean bias values estimated as 39, 4, 7 and 62 W/m2 for S1, S2, S3 and B1 respectively.

Field scale spatiotemporal analysis of surface soil moisture for evaluating point-scale in situ networks

Geoderma ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 195-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary C. Heathman ◽  
Michael H. Cosh ◽  
Eunjin Han ◽  
Thomas J. Jackson ◽  
Lynn McKee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Spatiotemporal Analysis ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Field Scale ◽  
Point Scale

scholarly journals Evaluation of the AMSR2 L2 soil moisture product of JAXA on the Mongolian Plateau over seven years (2012–2018)

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ichirow Kaihotsu ◽  
Jun Asanuma ◽  
Kentaro Aida ◽  
Dambaravjaa Oyunbaatar
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Vegetation Index ◽  
Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Mongolian Plateau ◽  
Moisture Measurement ◽  
Rainfall Condition ◽  
Soil Moisture Measurement

Abstract This study evaluated the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) L2 soil moisture product (ver. 3) using in situ hydrological observational data, acquired over 7 years (2012–2018), from a 50 × 50 km flat area of the Mongolian Plateau covered with bare soil, pasture and shrubs. Although AMSR2 slightly underestimated soil moisture content at 3-cm depth, satisfactory timing was observed in both the response patterns and the in situ soil moisture data, and the differences between these factors were not large. In terms of the relationship between AMSR2 soil moisture from descending orbits and in situ measured soil moisture at 3-cm depth, the values of the RMSE (m3/m3) and the bias (m3/m3) varied from 0.028 to 0.063 and from 0.011 to − 0.001 m3/m3, respectively. The values of the RMSE and bias depended on rainfall condition. The mean value of the RMSE for the 7-year period was 0.042 m3/m3, i.e., lower than the target accuracy 0.050 m3/m3. The validation results for descending orbits were found slightly better than for ascending orbits. Comparison of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) soil moisture product with the AMSR2 L2 soil moisture product showed that AMSR2 could observe surface soil moisture with nearly same accuracy and stability. However, the bias of the AMSR2 soil moisture measurement was slightly negative and poorer than that of SMOS with deeper soil moisture measurement. It means that AMSR2 cannot effectively measure soil moisture at 3-cm depth. In situ soil temperature at 3-cm depth and surface vegetation (normalized difference vegetation index) did not influence the underestimation of AMSR2 soil moisture measurements. These results suggest that a possible cause of the underestimation of AMSR2 soil moisture measurements is the difference between the depth of the AMSR2 observations and in situ soil moisture measurements. Overall, this study proved the AMSR2 L2 soil moisture product has been useful for monitoring daily surface soil moisture over large grassland areas and it clearly demonstrated the high-performance capability of AMSR2 since 2012.

scholarly journals An Evaluation of the EnKF vs. EnOI and the Assimilation of SMAP, SMOS and ESA CCI Soil Moisture Data over the Contiguous US

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (5) ◽  
pp. 478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jostein Blyverket ◽  
Paul Hamer ◽  
Laurent Bertino ◽  
Clément Albergel ◽  
David Fairbairn ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Surface Zone ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Atmospheric Forcing ◽  
Significance Level ◽  
Soil Moisture Data ◽  
In Situ Observations

A number of studies have shown that assimilation of satellite derived soil moisture using the ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) can improve soil moisture estimates, particularly for the surface zone. However, the EnKF is computationally expensive since an ensemble of model integrations have to be propagated forward in time. Here, assimilating satellite soil moisture data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, we compare the EnKF with the computationally cheaper ensemble Optimal Interpolation (EnOI) method over the contiguous United States (CONUS). The background error–covariance in the EnOI is sampled in two ways: (i) by using the stochastic spread from an ensemble open-loop run, and (ii) sampling from the model spinup climatology. Our results indicate that the EnKF is only marginally superior to one version of the EnOI. Furthermore, the assimilation of SMAP data using the EnKF and EnOI is found to improve the surface zone correlation with in situ observations at a 95 % significance level. The EnKF assimilation of SMAP data is also found to improve root-zone correlation with independent in situ data at the same significance level; however this improvement is dependent on which in situ network we are validating against. We evaluate how the quality of the atmospheric forcing affects the analysis results by prescribing the land surface data assimilation system with either observation corrected or model derived precipitation. Surface zone correlation skill increases for the analysis using both the corrected and model derived precipitation, but only the latter shows an improvement at the 95 % significance level. The study also suggests that assimilation of satellite derived surface soil moisture using the EnOI can correct random errors in the atmospheric forcing and give an analysed surface soil moisture close to that of an open-loop run using observation derived precipitation. Importantly, this shows that estimates of soil moisture could be improved using a combination of assimilating SMAP using the computationally cheap EnOI while using model derived precipitation as forcing. Finally, we assimilate three different Level-2 satellite derived soil moisture products from the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI), SMAP and SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) using the EnOI, and then compare the relative performance of the three resulting analyses against in situ soil moisture observations. In this comparison, we find that all three analyses offer improvements over an open-loop run when comparing to in situ observations. The assimilation of SMAP data is found to perform marginally better than the assimilation of SMOS data, while assimilation of the ESA CCI data shows the smallest improvement of the three analysis products.

scholarly journals The impact of near-surface soil moisture assimilation at subseasonal, seasonal, and inter-annual timescales

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (12) ◽  
pp. 4831-4844 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Draper ◽  
R. Reichle
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Data Assimilation ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Root Zone ◽  
Surface Model ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A 9 year record of Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer – Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) soil moisture retrievals are assimilated into the Catchment land surface model at four locations in the US. The assimilation is evaluated using the unbiased mean square error (ubMSE) relative to watershed-scale in situ observations, with the ubMSE separated into contributions from the subseasonal (SMshort), mean seasonal (SMseas), and inter-annual (SMlong) soil moisture dynamics. For near-surface soil moisture, the average ubMSE for Catchment without assimilation was (1.8 × 10−3 m3 m−3)2, of which 19 % was in SMlong, 26 % in SMseas, and 55 % in SMshort. The AMSR-E assimilation significantly reduced the total ubMSE at every site, with an average reduction of 33 %. Of this ubMSE reduction, 37 % occurred in SMlong, 24 % in SMseas, and 38 % in SMshort. For root-zone soil moisture, in situ observations were available at one site only, and the near-surface and root-zone results were very similar at this site. These results suggest that, in addition to the well-reported improvements in SMshort, assimilating a sufficiently long soil moisture data record can also improve the model representation of important long-term events, such as droughts. The improved agreement between the modeled and in situ SMseas is harder to interpret, given that mean seasonal cycle errors are systematic, and systematic errors are not typically targeted by (bias-blind) data assimilation. Finally, the use of 1-year subsets of the AMSR-E and Catchment soil moisture for estimating the observation-bias correction (rescaling) parameters is investigated. It is concluded that when only 1 year of data are available, the associated uncertainty in the rescaling parameters should not greatly reduce the average benefit gained from data assimilation, although locally and in extreme years there is a risk of increased errors.

scholarly journals Influence of cracking clays on satellite estimated and model simulated soil moisture

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 979-990 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Y. Liu ◽  
J. P. Evans ◽  
M. F. McCabe ◽  
R. A. M. de Jeu ◽  
A. I. J. M. van Dijk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Soil Moisture ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Soil Properties ◽  
Surface Soil ◽  
Clay Soils ◽  
Soil Types ◽  
Soil Porosity ◽  
Surface Soil Moisture ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Community Land Model

Abstract. Vertisols are clay soils that are common in the monsoonal and dry warm regions of the world. One of the characteristics of these soil types is to form deep cracks during periods of extended dry, resulting in significant variation of the soil and hydrologic properties. Understanding the influence of these varying soil properties on the hydrological behavior of the system is of considerable interest, particularly in the retrieval or simulation of soil moisture. In this study we compare surface soil moisture (θ in m3 m−3) retrievals from AMSR-E using the VUA-NASA (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in collaboration with NASA) algorithm with simulations from the Community Land Model (CLM) over vertisol regions of mainland Australia. For the three-year period examined here (2003–2005), both products display reasonable agreement during wet periods. During dry periods however, AMSR-E retrieved near surface soil moisture falls below values for surrounding non-clay soils, while CLM simulations are higher. CLM θ are also higher than AMSR-E and their difference keeps increasing throughout these dry periods. To identify the possible causes for these discrepancies, the impacts of land use, topography, soil properties and surface temperature used in the AMSR-E algorithm, together with vegetation density and rainfall patterns, were investigated. However these do not explain the observed θ responses. Qualitative analysis of the retrieval model suggests that the most likely reason for the low AMSR-E θ is the increase in soil porosity and surface roughness resulting from cracking of the soil. To quantitatively identify the role of each factor, more in situ measurements of soil properties that can represent different stages of cracking need to be collected. CLM does not simulate the behavior of cracking soils, including the additional loss of moisture from the soil continuum during drying and the infiltration into cracks during rainfall events, which results in overestimated θ when cracks are present. The hydrological influence of soil physical changes are expected to propagate through the modeled system, such that modeled infiltration, evaporation, surface temperature, surface runoff and groundwater recharge should be interpreted with caution over these soil types when cracks might be present. Introducing temporally dynamic roughness and soil porosity into retrieval algorithms and adding a "cracking clay" module into models are expected to improve the representation of vertisol hydrology.

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