Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements

Chris Derksen; Xiaolan Xu; R. Scott Dunbar; Andreas Colliander; Youngwook Kim; John S. Kimball; T. Andrew Black; Eugenie Euskirchen; Alexandre Langlois; Michael M. Loranty; Philip Marsh; Kimmo Rautiainen; Alexandre Roy; Alain Royer; Jilmarie Stephens

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007

Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements

Chris Derksen, Xiaolan Xu, R. Scott Dunbar, Andreas Colliander, Youngwook Kim, John S. Kimball, T. Andrew Black, Eugenie Euskirchen, Alexandre Langlois, Michael M. Loranty, Philip Marsh, Kimmo Rautiainen, Alexandre Roy, Alain Royer, Jilmarie Stephens

Numeric Terradynamic Simulation Group

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

122 Scopus citations

Abstract

Over one-third of the global land area undergoes a seasonal transition between predominantly frozen and non-frozen conditions each year, with the land surface freeze/thaw (FT) state a significant control on hydrological and biospheric processes over northern land areas and at high elevations. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission produced a daily landscape FT product at 3-km spatial resolution derived from ascending and descending orbits of SMAP high-resolution L-band (1.4 GHz) radar measurements. Following the failure of the SMAP radar in July 2015, coarser (36-km) footprint SMAP radiometer inputs were used to develop an alternative daily passive microwave freeze/thaw product. In this study, in situ observations are used to examine differences in the sensitivity of the 3-km radar versus the 36-km radiometer measurements to the landscape freeze/thaw state during the period of overlapping instrument operation. Assessment of the retrievals at high-latitude SMAP core validation sites showed excellent agreement with in situ flags, exceeding the 80% SMAP mission accuracy requirement. Similar performance was found for the radar and radiometer products using both air temperature and soil temperature derived FT reference flags. There was a tendency for SMAP thaw retrievals to lead the surface flags due to the influence of wet snow cover conditions on both the radar and radiometer signal. Comparison with other satellite derived FT products showed those derived from passive measurements (SMAP radiometer; Aquarius radiometer; Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - 2) retrieved less frozen area than the active products (SMAP radar; Aquarius radar).

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	48-62
Number of pages	15
Journal	Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume	194
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007
State	Published - Jun 1 2017

Keywords

Freeze/thaw
Passive microwave
Radar
SMAP

Access to Document

10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007

Cite this

Derksen, C., Xu, X., Scott Dunbar, R., Colliander, A., Kim, Y., Kimball, J. S., Black, T. A., Euskirchen, E., Langlois, A., Loranty, M. M., Marsh, P., Rautiainen, K., Roy, A., Royer, A., & Stephens, J. (2017). Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements. Remote Sensing of Environment, 194, 48-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007

@article{c1d74adc3d8744d2b935fdb8537a9fe0,

title = "Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements",

abstract = "Over one-third of the global land area undergoes a seasonal transition between predominantly frozen and non-frozen conditions each year, with the land surface freeze/thaw (FT) state a significant control on hydrological and biospheric processes over northern land areas and at high elevations. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission produced a daily landscape FT product at 3-km spatial resolution derived from ascending and descending orbits of SMAP high-resolution L-band (1.4 GHz) radar measurements. Following the failure of the SMAP radar in July 2015, coarser (36-km) footprint SMAP radiometer inputs were used to develop an alternative daily passive microwave freeze/thaw product. In this study, in situ observations are used to examine differences in the sensitivity of the 3-km radar versus the 36-km radiometer measurements to the landscape freeze/thaw state during the period of overlapping instrument operation. Assessment of the retrievals at high-latitude SMAP core validation sites showed excellent agreement with in situ flags, exceeding the 80% SMAP mission accuracy requirement. Similar performance was found for the radar and radiometer products using both air temperature and soil temperature derived FT reference flags. There was a tendency for SMAP thaw retrievals to lead the surface flags due to the influence of wet snow cover conditions on both the radar and radiometer signal. Comparison with other satellite derived FT products showed those derived from passive measurements (SMAP radiometer; Aquarius radiometer; Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - 2) retrieved less frozen area than the active products (SMAP radar; Aquarius radar).",

keywords = "Freeze/thaw, Passive microwave, Radar, SMAP",

author = "Chris Derksen and Xiaolan Xu and {Scott Dunbar}, R. and Andreas Colliander and Youngwook Kim and Kimball, {John S.} and Black, {T. Andrew} and Eugenie Euskirchen and Alexandre Langlois and Loranty, {Michael M.} and Philip Marsh and Kimmo Rautiainen and Alexandre Roy and Alain Royer and Jilmarie Stephens",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2017",

year = "2017",

month = jun,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007",

language = "English",

volume = "194",

pages = "48--62",

journal = "Remote Sensing of Environment",

issn = "0034-4257",

publisher = "Elsevier Inc.",

}

Derksen, C, Xu, X, Scott Dunbar, R, Colliander, A, Kim, Y, Kimball, JS, Black, TA, Euskirchen, E, Langlois, A, Loranty, MM, Marsh, P, Rautiainen, K, Roy, A, Royer, A & Stephens, J 2017, 'Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements', Remote Sensing of Environment, vol. 194, pp. 48-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007

TY - JOUR

T1 - Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements

AU - Derksen, Chris

AU - Xu, Xiaolan

AU - Scott Dunbar, R.

AU - Colliander, Andreas

AU - Kim, Youngwook

AU - Kimball, John S.

AU - Black, T. Andrew

AU - Euskirchen, Eugenie

AU - Langlois, Alexandre

AU - Loranty, Michael M.

AU - Marsh, Philip

AU - Rautiainen, Kimmo

AU - Roy, Alexandre

AU - Royer, Alain

AU - Stephens, Jilmarie

PY - 2017/6/1

Y1 - 2017/6/1

N2 - Over one-third of the global land area undergoes a seasonal transition between predominantly frozen and non-frozen conditions each year, with the land surface freeze/thaw (FT) state a significant control on hydrological and biospheric processes over northern land areas and at high elevations. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission produced a daily landscape FT product at 3-km spatial resolution derived from ascending and descending orbits of SMAP high-resolution L-band (1.4 GHz) radar measurements. Following the failure of the SMAP radar in July 2015, coarser (36-km) footprint SMAP radiometer inputs were used to develop an alternative daily passive microwave freeze/thaw product. In this study, in situ observations are used to examine differences in the sensitivity of the 3-km radar versus the 36-km radiometer measurements to the landscape freeze/thaw state during the period of overlapping instrument operation. Assessment of the retrievals at high-latitude SMAP core validation sites showed excellent agreement with in situ flags, exceeding the 80% SMAP mission accuracy requirement. Similar performance was found for the radar and radiometer products using both air temperature and soil temperature derived FT reference flags. There was a tendency for SMAP thaw retrievals to lead the surface flags due to the influence of wet snow cover conditions on both the radar and radiometer signal. Comparison with other satellite derived FT products showed those derived from passive measurements (SMAP radiometer; Aquarius radiometer; Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - 2) retrieved less frozen area than the active products (SMAP radar; Aquarius radar).

AB - Over one-third of the global land area undergoes a seasonal transition between predominantly frozen and non-frozen conditions each year, with the land surface freeze/thaw (FT) state a significant control on hydrological and biospheric processes over northern land areas and at high elevations. The NASA Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission produced a daily landscape FT product at 3-km spatial resolution derived from ascending and descending orbits of SMAP high-resolution L-band (1.4 GHz) radar measurements. Following the failure of the SMAP radar in July 2015, coarser (36-km) footprint SMAP radiometer inputs were used to develop an alternative daily passive microwave freeze/thaw product. In this study, in situ observations are used to examine differences in the sensitivity of the 3-km radar versus the 36-km radiometer measurements to the landscape freeze/thaw state during the period of overlapping instrument operation. Assessment of the retrievals at high-latitude SMAP core validation sites showed excellent agreement with in situ flags, exceeding the 80% SMAP mission accuracy requirement. Similar performance was found for the radar and radiometer products using both air temperature and soil temperature derived FT reference flags. There was a tendency for SMAP thaw retrievals to lead the surface flags due to the influence of wet snow cover conditions on both the radar and radiometer signal. Comparison with other satellite derived FT products showed those derived from passive measurements (SMAP radiometer; Aquarius radiometer; Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - 2) retrieved less frozen area than the active products (SMAP radar; Aquarius radar).

KW - Freeze/thaw

KW - Passive microwave

KW - Radar

KW - SMAP

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015983120&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007

DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2017.03.007

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85015983120

SN - 0034-4257

VL - 194

SP - 48

EP - 62

JO - Remote Sensing of Environment

JF - Remote Sensing of Environment

ER -

Retrieving landscape freeze/thaw state from Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) radar and radiometer measurements

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this