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Main Authors: Zhang, Runze, Nayak, Abhi, Houtz, Derek, Watts, Adam, Soltanaghai, Elahe, Alipour, Mohamad
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17024
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author Zhang, Runze
Nayak, Abhi
Houtz, Derek
Watts, Adam
Soltanaghai, Elahe
Alipour, Mohamad
author_facet Zhang, Runze
Nayak, Abhi
Houtz, Derek
Watts, Adam
Soltanaghai, Elahe
Alipour, Mohamad
contents Spaceborne microwave passive soil moisture products are known for their accuracy but are often limited by coarse spatial resolutions. This limits their ability to capture finer soil moisture gradients and hinders their applications. The Portable L band radiometer (PoLRa) offers soil moisture measurements from submeter to tens of meters depending on the altitude of measurement. Given that the assessments of soil moisture derived from this sensor are notably lacking, this study aims to evaluate the performance of submeter soil moisture retrieved from PoLRa mounted on poles at four different locations in central Illinois, USA. The evaluation focuses on the consistency of PoLRa measured brightness temperatures from different directions relative to the same area, and the accuracy of PoLRa derived soil moisture. As PoLRa shares many aspects of the L band radiometer onboard the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, two SMAP operational algorithms and the conventional dual channel algorithm were applied to calculate soil moisture from the measured brightness temperatures. The vertically polarized brightness temperatures from the PoLRa are typically more stable than their horizontally polarized counterparts. In each test period, the standard deviations of observed dual polarization brightness temperatures are generally less than 5 K. By comparing PoLRa based soil moisture retrievals against the moisture values obtained by handheld time domain reflectometry, the unbiased root mean square error and the Pearson correlation coefficient are mostly below 0.04 and above 0.75, confirming the high accuracy of PoLRa derived soil moisture retrievals and the feasibility of utilizing SMAP algorithms for PoLRa data. These findings highlight the significant potential of ground or drone based PoLRa measurements as a standalone reference for future spaceborne L band sensors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_17024
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Sub-Meter Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture Using Portable L-band Microwave Radiometer
Zhang, Runze
Nayak, Abhi
Houtz, Derek
Watts, Adam
Soltanaghai, Elahe
Alipour, Mohamad
Signal Processing
Spaceborne microwave passive soil moisture products are known for their accuracy but are often limited by coarse spatial resolutions. This limits their ability to capture finer soil moisture gradients and hinders their applications. The Portable L band radiometer (PoLRa) offers soil moisture measurements from submeter to tens of meters depending on the altitude of measurement. Given that the assessments of soil moisture derived from this sensor are notably lacking, this study aims to evaluate the performance of submeter soil moisture retrieved from PoLRa mounted on poles at four different locations in central Illinois, USA. The evaluation focuses on the consistency of PoLRa measured brightness temperatures from different directions relative to the same area, and the accuracy of PoLRa derived soil moisture. As PoLRa shares many aspects of the L band radiometer onboard the NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission, two SMAP operational algorithms and the conventional dual channel algorithm were applied to calculate soil moisture from the measured brightness temperatures. The vertically polarized brightness temperatures from the PoLRa are typically more stable than their horizontally polarized counterparts. In each test period, the standard deviations of observed dual polarization brightness temperatures are generally less than 5 K. By comparing PoLRa based soil moisture retrievals against the moisture values obtained by handheld time domain reflectometry, the unbiased root mean square error and the Pearson correlation coefficient are mostly below 0.04 and above 0.75, confirming the high accuracy of PoLRa derived soil moisture retrievals and the feasibility of utilizing SMAP algorithms for PoLRa data. These findings highlight the significant potential of ground or drone based PoLRa measurements as a standalone reference for future spaceborne L band sensors.
title Sub-Meter Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture Using Portable L-band Microwave Radiometer
topic Signal Processing
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.17024