A combined optical-microwave method to retrieve soil moisture over vegetated areas
A simple approach for correcting for the effect of vegetation in the estimation of the surface soil moisture (wS) from L-band passive microwave observations is presented in this study. The approach is based on semi-empirical relationships between soil moisture and the polarized reflectivity including the effect of the vegetation optical depth which is parameterized as a function of the normalized vegetation difference index (NDVI). The method was tested against in situ measurements collected over a grass site from 2004 to 2007 (SMOSREX experiment). Two polarizations (horizontal/vertical) and five incidence angles (20◦, 30◦, 40◦, 50◦, and 60◦) were considered in the analysis. The best wS est…
CAROLS campaigns 2009: First Results
International audience; The CAROLS, L band radiometer, is built and designed as a copy of EMIRAD II radiometer of DTU team. It is a Correlation radiometer with direct sampling and fully polarimetric (i.e 4 Stockes). It will be used in conjunction with other airborne instruments (in particular the C-Band scatterometer (STORM) and IEEEC GPS system, Infrared CIMEL radiometer and one visible camera), in coordination with in situ field campaigns for SMOS CAL/VAL. The instruments are implemented on board the French research airplane ATR42. A scientific campaign with thirteen flights is realized over south-western France, Valencia site and Bay of Biscay (Atlantic Ocean) in spring 2009. In order to…
ERA5-Land: A state-of-the-art global reanalysis dataset for land applications
Framed within the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) of the European Commission, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is producing an enhanced global dataset for the land component of the fifth generation of European ReAnalysis (ERA5), hereafter referred to as ERA5-Land. Once completed, the period covered will span from 1950 to the present, with continuous updates to support land monitoring applications. ERA5-Land describes the evolution of the water and energy cycles over land in a consistent manner over the production period, which, among others, could be used to analyse trends and anomalies. This is achieved through global high-resolution numerical integrat…
Retrievals of soil moisture and optical depth from CAROLS
International audience; We propose in this paper to evaluate a method to retrieve soil moisture (SM) and vegetation optical thickness, in areas of unknown roughness and unknown vegetation water content in view of operational applications, by using airborne Tb measurements acquired in South-West of France. Results are compared to in situ measurements, manual and automatic ones included in SMOSmania network, in the South-West of France.
CAROLS: A New Airborne L-Band Radiometer for Ocean Surface and Land Observations
The "Cooperative Airborne Radiometer for Ocean and Land Studies" (CAROLS) L-Band radiometer was designed and built as a copy of the EMIRAD II radiometer constructed by the Technical University of Denmark team. It is a fully polarimetric and direct sampling correlation radiometer. It is installed on board a dedicated French ATR42 research aircraft, in conjunction with other airborne instruments (C-Band scatterometer--STORM, the GOLD-RTR GPS system, the infrared CIMEL radiometer and a visible wavelength camera). Following initial laboratory qualifications, three airborne campaigns involving 21 flights were carried out over South West France, the Valencia site and the Bay of Biscay (Atlantic O…