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Articles | Volume XL-7/W3
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-7-W3-545-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsarchives-XL-7-W3-545-2015
29 Apr 2015
 | 29 Apr 2015

Long-term Soil Moisture Time Series Analyses based on Active Microwave Backscatter Measurements

W. Wagner, C. Reimer, B. Bauer-Marschallinger, M. Enenkel, S. Hahn, T. Melzer, V. Naeimi, C. Paulik, and W. Dorigo

Keywords: Soil moisture, scatterometers, land surface dynamics

Abstract. Active microwave sensors operating at lower microwave frequencies in the range from 1 to 10 GHz provide backscatter measurements that are sensitive to the moisture content of the soil. Thanks to a series of European C-band (5.3 GHz) scatterometers, which were first flown on board of the European Remote Sensing satellites ERS-1 and ERS-2, and later on board of MetOp-A and MetOp -B, we are now in the possession of a long-term soil moisture time series starting in 1991. The creation of globally consistent long-term soil moisture time series is a challenging task. The TU-Wien soil moisture algorithm is adopted to tackle these challenges. In this paper we present two methodologies that were developed to ensure radiometric stability of the European C-band scatterometers. The objective of sensor intra-calibration is to monitor and correct for radiometric instabilities within one scatterometer mission, while sensor inter-calibration aims to remove radiometric differences across several missions. In addition, a novel vegetation modelling approach is presented that enables the estimation of vegetation parameters for each day across several years to account for yearly to longer-term changes in vegetation phenology and land cover.