AN OBSERVING SYSTEM SIMULATION EXPERIMENT FOR HYDROS RADIOMETER-ONLY SOIL MOISTURE AND FREEZE-THAW PRODUCTS

Authors: Crow, Wade; ENTEKHABI, D - MIT; O'NEILL, P - NASA GSFC; NJUKO, E - NASA JPL; CHAN, T - NASA JPL; SHI, J - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

Submitted to: International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/12/2005
Publication Date: 8/1/2005
Citation: Crow, W.T.,Entekhabi, D.,O’Neill P.E., Njoku, E.,Chan, T., Shi, J.C. 2005. An observing system simulation experiment for hydros radiometer-only soil moisture and freeze-thaw products. In: Proceedings of the 2005 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, July 25-29, 2005, Seoul, South Korea. 4:2737.

Interpretive Summary: none

Technical Abstract: An important issue in the development of a dedicated space borne soil moisture sensor has been concern over the reliability of soil moisture retrievals in densely vegetated areas and the global extent over which retrievals will be possible. Errors in retrieved soil moisture can originate from a variety of sources within the measurement and retrieval process. In addition to instrument error, three key contributors to retrieval error are the masking of the soil microwave signal by vegetation, the interplay between nonlinear retrieval physics and the relatively poor spatial resolution of space borne sensors, and retrieval specification of land surface soil moisture patterns are currently difficult to obtain from direct observations, an attractive alternative is the application of an observing system simulation experiment (OSSE) in which simulated land surface states are propagated through the sensor measurement and retrieval process to investigate and constrain expected levels of retrieval error. This manuscript describes results from on OSSE designed out to simulate the impact of land surface on radiometer-only soil moisture products derived from the NASSA ESSP Hydrosphere State (Hydros) mission.