A Preliminary Study toward Consistent Soil Moisture from AMSR2

For four decades, satellite-based passive microwave sensors have provided valuable snow water equivalent (SWE) monitoring at a global scale. Before continuous long-term SWE records can be used for scientific or applied purposes, consistency of SWE measurements among different sensors is required. SWE retrievals from two passive sensors currently operating, the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), have not been fully evaluated in comparison to each other and previous instruments. Here, we evaluated consistency between the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) onboard the F13 Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and SSMIS onboard the F17 DMSP, from November 2002 to April 2011 using the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) for continuity. Likewise, we evaluated consistency between AMSR-E and AMSR2 SWE retrievals from November 2007 to April 2016, using SSMIS for continuity. The analysis is conducted for 1176 watersheds in the North Central U.S. with consideration of difference among three snow classifications (Warm forest, Prairie, and Maritime). There are notable SWE differences between the SSM/I and SSMIS sensors in the Warm forest class, likely due to the different interpolation methods for brightness temperature (Tb) between the F13 SSM/I and F17 SSMIS sensors. The SWE differences between AMSR2 and AMSR-E are generally smaller than the differences between SSM/I and SSMIS SWE, based on time series comparisons and yearly mean bias. Finally, the spatial bias patterns between AMSR-E and AMSR2 versus SSMIS indicate sufficient spatial consistency to treat the AMSR-E and AMSR2 datasets as one continuous record. Our results provide useful information on systematic differences between recent satellite-based SWE retrievals and suggest subsequent studies to ensure reconciliation between different sensors in long-term SWE records.

Soil moisture plays a significant role in disciplines such as hydrology, meteorology and agriculture, and passive microwave remote sensing has become a widely used technique for global soil moisture estimation over the past three decades. Several satellite missions carrying radiometers have been launched over the past years. Among them are Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's (JAXA's) Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS (AMSR-E) launched on NASA's Aqua satellite, European Space Agency's (ESA's) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, JAXA's Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) onboard the GCOM-W satellite, and NASA's Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission. Based on the availability of these four missions, there is an opportunity to develop a consistent inter-calibrated longterm soil moisture data record. This study focuses on the parametrization of the tau-omega model for soil moisture retrieval at L-, C- and X-band using brightness temperature observations from the four missions and in-situ soil moisture and soil temperature data from the SMAP core validation sites across various land cover types. The ancillary data sets used in the SMAP baseline algorithm are used for the retrievals at different frequencies. Simultaneous calibrations of the vegetation parameter $b$ and roughness parameter $h$ at both horizontal and vertical polarizations are performed. A set of model parameters to successfully retrieve soil moisture at different validation sites at L-, C- and X -band are presented. A preliminary comparison of SMAP and AMSR2 soil moisture retrievals against in situ observations at the Yanco (Australia) and TxSON (U.S.) sites showed the best accuracy and correlation at L-band (RMSD=0.03-0.05 m3/m3; R=0.92-0.94). The C-/X-band performance was not as satisfactory as L-band (RMSD=0.08-0.17 m3/m3; R=0.24-0.79). This also indicates that retrieval at higher frequencies can be very challenging when dense vegetation is present.

As part of the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) validation process, a comparison of the skills of three satellites [SMOS, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) or Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer, and Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT)], and one-model European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) soil moisture products is conducted over four watersheds located in the U.S. The four products compared in for 2010 over four soil moisture networks were used for the calibration of AMSR-E. The results indicate that SMOS retrievals are closest to the ground measurements with a low average root mean square error of 0.061 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> ·m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> for the morning overpass and 0.067 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> ·m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> for the afternoon overpass, which represents an improvement by a factor of 2-3 compared with the other products. The ECMWF product has good correlation coefficients (around 0.78) but has a constant bias of 0.1-0.2 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> ·m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">-3</sup> over the four networks. The land parameter retrieval model AMSR-E product gives reasonable results in terms of correlation (around 0.73) but has a variable seasonal bias over the year. The ASCAT soil moisture index is found to be very noisy and unstable.

Soil moisture (SM) is a key variable in hydrological processes, bio-ecological processes, and biogeochemical processes. Long-term observations of soil moisture over large areas are critical to research on flooding and drought monitoring, water resource management, and crop yield forecasts. In this paper, Fengyun (FY3B and FY3C) SM products, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) SM products from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) AMSR2 L3 SM products, the Version 2 (v2) global land parameter data record (LPDR) of SM products, Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS) Centre Aval de Traitement des Donnees SMOS (CATDS) L3 SM products, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) passive L3 SM products and the European Space Agency(ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) SM products were evaluated using the ground-based observations in the Little Washita, Fort Cobb and Yanco networks. Long-time series comparison between measured and satellite products was conducted to evaluate the overall performance of FY3 series satellites SM products. Bias (mean bias), R (correlation coefficient), RMSE (root mean square error) and ubRMSE (unbiased root mean square error) were calculated to explore the agreement between satellite products and in-situ measurements. Taylor diagrams were used to compare the performance of various satellite products. The result showed that (1) FY3B, FY3C and LPRM AMSR2 ascending and descending products had an obvious overestimate with in-situ soil moisture in three networks. (2) JAXA AMSR2 ascending and descending products had considerable underestimation in three networks. (3) The validation result of SMOS ascending and descending products over the three networks was satisfactory, with a rather high correlation than other X-band products. (4) The validation result of SMAP ascending and descending products outperformed the other products over the Little Washita and Fort Cobb networks. (5) The ESA CCI product had the lowest values of RMSE and ubRMSE than the other products in the Yanco network, revealing the effectiveness of merging active and passive soil moisture products. (6)The LPDR descending SM products had better performance than the LPDR ascending SM products in the LW and FC networks.

Time series of soil moisture (SM) data in the Qinghai–Tibet plateau (QTP) covering a period longer than one decade are important for understanding the dynamics of land surface–atmosphere feedbacks in the global climate system. However, most existing SM products have a relatively short time series or show low performance over the challenging terrain of the QTP. In order to improve the spaceborne monitoring in this area, this study presents a random forest (RF) method to rebuild a high-accuracy SM product over the QTP from 19 June 2002 to 31 March 2015 by adopting the advanced microwave scanning radiometer for earth observing system (AMSR-E), and the advanced microwave scanning radiometer 2 (AMSR2), and tracking brightness temperatures with latitude and longitude using the International Geosphere–Biospheres Programme (IGBP) classification data, the digital elevation model (DEM) and the day of the year (DOY) as spatial predictors. Brightness temperature products (from frequencies 10.7 GHz, 18.7 GHz and 36.5 GHz) of AMSR2 were used to train the random forest model on two years of Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) SM data. The simulated SM values were compared with third year SMAP data and in situ stations. The results show that the RF model has high reliability as compared to SMAP, with a high correlation (R = 0.95) and low values of root mean square error (RMSE = 0.03 m3/m3) and mean absolute percent error (MAPE = 19%). Moreover, the random forest soil moisture (RFSM) results agree well with the data from five in situ networks, with mean values of R = 0.75, RMSE = 0.06 m3/m3, and bias = −0.03 m3/m3 over the whole year and R = 0.70, RMSE = 0.07 m3/m3, and bias = −0.05 m3/m3 during the unfrozen seasons. In order to test its performance throughout the whole region of QTP, the three-cornered hat (TCH) method based on removing common signals from observations and then calculating the uncertainties is applied. The results indicate that RFSM has the smallest relative error in 56% of the region, and it performs best relative to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS), and European Space Agency’s Climate Change Initiative (ESA CCI) project. The spatial distribution shows that RFSM has a similar spatial trend as GLDAS and ESA CCI, but RFSM exhibits a more distinct spatial distribution and responds to precipitation more effectively than GLDAS and ESA CCI. Moreover, a trend analysis shows that the temporal variation of RFSM agrees well with precipitation and LST (land surface temperature), with a dry trend in most regions of QTP and a wet trend in few north, southeast and southwest regions of QTP. In conclusion, a spatiotemporally continuous SM product with a high accuracy over the QTP was obtained.

Satellite soil moisture estimates have received increasing attention over the past decade. This paper examines the applicability of estimating soil moisture states and soil hydraulic parameters through two particle filter (PF) methods: The PF with commonly used sampling importance resampling (PF-SIR) and the PF with recently developed Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling (PF-MCMC) methods. In a synthetic experiment, the potential of assimilating remotely sensed near-surface soil moisture measurements into a 1-D mechanistic soil water model (HYDRUS-1D) using both the PF-SIR and PF-MCMC algorithms is analyzed. The effects of satellite temporal resolution and accuracy, soil type, and ensemble size on the assimilation of soil moisture are analyzed. In a real data experiment, we first validate the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer--Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) soil moisture products in the Oklahoma Little Washita Watershed. Aside from rescaling the remotely sensed soil moisture, a bias correction algorithm is implemented to correct the deep soil moisture estimate. Both the ascending and descending AMSR-E soil moisture data are assimilated into the HYDRUS-1D model. The synthetic assimilation results indicated that, whereas both updating schemes showed the ability to correct the soil moisture state and estimate hydraulic parameters, the PF-MCMC scheme is consistently more accurate than PR-SIR. For real data case, the quality of remotely sensed soil moisture impacts the benefits of their assimilation into the model. The PF-MCMC scheme brought marginal gains than the open-loop simulation in RMSE at both surface and root-zone soil layer, whereas the PF-SIR scheme degraded the open-loop simulation.

High‐precision soil moisture products play an important role in estimating forest carbon storage and carbon emissions in Genhe, China. In this paper, we evaluated the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) L3 product, the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) L3 product, and four soil moisture products derived from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR‐2), i.e., the Dual Channel Algorithm based on the Qp model (QDCA) product, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) L3 product, and the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) C band and X band products in the Genhe area of China. The results indicated that the root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) and bias of the QDCA product were lower than those of the other AMSR‐2 products, although the QDCA still fell outside of the acceptable range with a volumetric error of no greater than 6%. The JAXA product underestimated the soil moisture and had a constant bias of 0.089–0.099 m3 m−3. The LPRM C‐band and X‐band products had a constant variable season bias of 0.261–0.576 m3 m−3. The quality of the SMOS was better than that of the AMSR‐2 products; however, the results were noisy and unstable. The SMAP was closest to the ground measurements and presented a low RMSE (0.039–0.063 m3 m−3) and bias (0.022–0.050 m3 m−3). Finally, an assessment was performed on the parameters in these soil moisture algorithms.

Soil moisture (SM) applications in terrestrial hydrology require higher spatial resolution soil moisture products than those provided by passive microwave remote sensing instruments (grid resolution of 9 km or larger). In this investigation, an innovative algorithm that uses visible/infrared remote sensing observations to downscale Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) coarse spatial resolution SM products was developed and implemented for use with data provided by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). The method is based on using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) modulated relationships between day/night SM and temperature change at corresponding times. Land surface model output variables from the North America Land Data Assimilation System (NLDAS), remote sensing data from the Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) were used in this methodology. The functional relationships developed using NLDAS data at a grid resolution of 12.5 km were applied to downscale AMSR2 JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) SM product (25 km) using MODIS land surface temperature (LST) and NDVI observations (1 km) to produce the 1 km SM estimates. The downscaled SM estimates were validated by comparing them with ISMN (International Soil Moisture Network) in situ SM in the Black Bear–Red Rock watershed, central Oklahoma between 2015–2017. The overall statistical variables of the downscaled AMSR2 SM validation R2, slope, RMSE and bias, demonstrate good accuracy. The downscaled SM better characterized the spatial and temporal variability of SM at watershed scales than the original SM product.

Abstract. Soil moisture (SM) data records longer than 30 years are critical for climate change research and various applications. However, only a few such long-term global SM datasets exist, and they often suffer from large biases, low spatial resolution, or spatiotemporal incompleteness. Here, we generated a consistent and seamless global surface SM product (0–5 cm) spanning 1982–2021 using a deep learning (DL) model. The model was trained with the GLASS-MODIS SM product and was designed to integrate four decades of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)-derived albedo and land surface temperature, the land component of the fifth generation of European ReAnalysis (ERA5-Land) SM, and terrain and soil texture datasets as input features. Considering the temporal autocorrelation of SM, we explored two types of DL models that are adept at processing sequential data, including three long short-term memory (LSTM)-based models, i.e., the basic LSTM, bidirectional LSTM (Bi-LSTM), and attention-based LSTM (AtLSTM), and a transformer model. We also compared the performance of the DL models with the tree-based eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) model, known for its high efficiency and accuracy. Our results show that all four DL models outperformed the benchmark XGBoost model, with the AtLSTM model achieving the highest accuracy on the test set, particularly at high SM levels (&gt;0.4m3m-3). These results suggest that under some challenging conditions, utilizing temporal information and adding an attention module can effectively enhance the estimation accuracy of SM. Subsequent analysis of attention weights revealed that the AtLSTM model could automatically learn the necessary temporal information from adjacent positions in the sequence, which is critical for accurate SM estimation. The best-performing AtLSTM model was then adopted to produce a four-decade seamless global SM dataset at 5 km spatial resolution, denoted as the GLASS-AVHRR SM product. Validation of the GLASS-AVHRR SM product using 45 independent International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) stations prior to 2000 yielded a median correlation coefficient (R) of 0.73 and an unbiased root mean square error (ubRMSE) of 0.041 m3 m−3. When validated against SM datasets from three post-2000 field-scale COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS) networks, the median R values ranged from 0.63 to 0.79, and the median ubRMSE values ranged from 0.044 to 0.065 m3 m−3. Further validation across 22 upscaled 9 km Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) core validation sites indicated that it could well capture the temporal variations in measured SM and remained unaffected by the large wet biases present in the input ERA5-Land SM product. Moreover, characterized by complete spatial coverage and low biases, this four-decade, 5 km GLASS-AVHRR SM product exhibited high spatial and temporal consistency with the 1 km GLASS-MODIS SM product and contained much richer spatial details than both the long-term ERA5-Land SM product (0.1°) and European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative combined SM product (0.25°). The annual average GLASS-AVHRR SM dataset from 1982 to 2021 is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14198201 (Zhang et al., 2024b), and the complete product can be freely downloaded from https://glass.hku.hk/archive/SM/AVHRR/ (last access: 18 September 2025).

It is more difficult to retrieve land surface temperature (LST) from passive microwave remote sensing data than from thermal remote sensing data, because the emissivities in the passive microwave band can change more easily than those in the thermal infrared band. Thus, it is very difficult to build a stable relationship. Passive microwave band emissivities are greatly influenced by the soil moisture, which varies with time. This makes it difficult to develop a general physical algorithm. This paper proposes a method to utilize multiple-satellite, sensors and resolution coupled with a deep dynamic learning neural network to retrieve the land surface temperature from images acquired by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), a sensor that is similar to the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). The AMSR-E and MODIS sensors are located aboard the Aqua satellite. The MODIS LST product is used as the ground truth data to overcome the difficulties in obtaining large scale land surface temperature data. The mean and standard deviation of the retrieval error are approximately 1.4° and 1.9° when five frequencies (ten channels, 10.7, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, 89 V/H GHz) are used. This method can effectively eliminate the influences of the soil moisture, roughness, atmosphere and various other factors. An analysis of the application of this method to the retrieval of land surface temperature from AMSR2 data indicates that the method is feasible. The accuracy is approximately 1.8° through a comparison between the retrieval results with ground measurement data from meteorological stations.

Comparison of remotely sensed and modelled soil moisture data sets across Australia

High-quality and long time-series soil moisture (SM) data are increasingly required for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP) to more accurately and effectively assess climate change. In this study, to evaluate the accuracy and effectiveness of SM data, five passive microwave remotely sensed SM products are collected over the QTP, including those from the soil moisture active passive (SMAP), soil moisture and ocean salinity INRA-CESBIO (SMOS-IC), Fengyun-3B microwave radiation image (FY3B), and two SM products derived from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer 2 (AMSR2). The two AMSR2 products are generated by the land parameter retrieval model (LPRM) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) algorithm, respectively. The SM products are evaluated through a two-stage data comparison method. The first stage is direct validation at the grid scale. Five SM products are compared with corresponding in situ measurements at five in situ networks, including Heihe, Naqu, Pali, Maqu, and Ngari. Another stage is indirect validation at the regional scale, where the uncertainties of the data are quantified by using a three-cornered hat (TCH) method. The results at the regional scale indicate that soil moisture is underestimated by JAXA and overestimated by LPRM, some noise is contained in temporal variations in SMOS-IC, and FY3B has relatively low absolute accuracy. The uncertainty of SMAP is the lowest among the five products over the entire QTP. In the SM map composed by five SM products with the lowest pixel-level uncertainty, 66.64% of the area is covered by SMAP (JAXA: 19.39%, FY3B: 10.83%, LPRM: 2.11%, and SMOS-IC: 1.03%). This study reveals some of the reasons for the different performances of these five SM products, mainly from the perspective of the parameterization schemes of their corresponding retrieval algorithms. Specifically, the parameterization configurations and corresponding input datasets, including the land-surface temperature, the vegetation optical depth, and the soil dielectric mixing model are analyzed and discussed. This study provides quantitative evidence to better understand the uncertainties of SM products and explain errors that originate from the retrieval algorithms.

Microwave land surface emissivity is one of the key inputs in Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models. It can be used also to classify land surface and subsurface properties such as soil moisture. The objective of this study is to develop global land effective emissivity product using passive microwave observations from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). Ancillary data such as land surface skin temperature and cloud flag were obtained from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) data set are used in the analysis. Atmospheric parameters were obtained from TOVS observations to account for the upwelling and downwelling atmospheric emissions as well as atmospheric transmission. Instantaneous land emissivity maps were determined over cloud free pixels for each ascending and descending overpass. In addition, a global clear sky composite is produced on monthly basis. The derived maps show acceptable agreement with the global pattern of land cover types. The emissivity maps also agree reasonably well with the existing SSM/I based product.

Multiple soil moisture products have been generated from data acquired by satellite. However, these satellite soil moisture products are not spatially or temporally complete, primarily due to track changes, radio-frequency interference, dense vegetation, and frozen soil. These deficiencies limit the application of soil moisture in land surface process simulation, climatic modeling, and global change research. To fill the gaps and generate spatially and temporally complete soil moisture data, a data assimilation algorithm is proposed in this study. A soil moisture model is used to simulate soil moisture over time, and the shuffled complex evolution optimization method, developed at the University of Arizona, is used to estimate the control variables of the soil moisture model from good-quality satellite soil moisture data covering one year, so that the temporal behavior of the modeled soil moisture reaches the best agreement with the good-quality satellite soil moisture data. Soil moisture time series were then reconstructed by the soil moisture model according to the optimal values of the control variables. To analyze its performance, the data assimilation algorithm was applied to a daily soil moisture product derived from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E), the Microwave Radiometer Imager (MWRI), and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2). Preliminary analysis using soil moisture data simulated by the Global Land Data Assimilation System (GLDAS) Noah model and soil moisture measurements at a multi-scale Soil Moisture and Temperature Monitoring Network on the central Tibetan Plateau (CTP-SMTMN) was performed to validate this method. The results show that the data assimilation algorithm can efficiently reconstruct spatially and temporally complete soil moisture time series. The reconstructed soil moisture data are consistent with the spatial precipitation distribution and have strong positive correlations with the values simulated by the GLDAS Noah model over large areas of the region. Compared to the soil moisture measurements at the medium and large networks, the reconstructed soil moisture data have almost the same accuracy as the soil moisture product derived from AMSR-E/MWRI/AMSR2 for ascending and descending orbits.

Accurate estimation of passive microwave land surface emissivity (LSE) is crucial for numerical weather prediction model data assimilation, for microwave retrievals of land precipitation and atmospheric profiles, and for a better understanding of land surface and subsurface characteristics. In this study, global instantaneous LSE is estimated for a 9-yr period from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) and for a 5-yr period from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) sensors. Estimates of LSE from both sensors were obtained by using an updated algorithm that minimizes the discrepancy between the differences in penetration depths from microwave and infrared remote sensing observations. Concurrent ancillary datasets such as skin temperature from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and profiles of air temperature and humidity from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder are used. The latest collection 6 of MODIS skin temperature is used for the LSE estimation, and the differences between collections 6 and 5 are also comprehensively assessed. Analyses reveal that the differences between these two versions of infrared-based skin temperatures could lead to approximately a 0.015 difference in passive microwave LSE values, especially in arid regions. The comparison of global mean LSE features from the combined use of AMSR-E and AMSR2 with an independent product—Tool to Estimate Land Surface Emissivity from Microwave to Submillimeter Waves (TELSEM2)—shows spatial pattern correlations of order 0.92 at all frequencies. However, there are considerable differences in magnitude between these two LSE estimates, possibly because of differences in incidence angles, frequencies, observation times, and ancillary datasets.