Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #344121

Research Project: Integrating Remote Sensing, Measurements and Modeling for Multi-Scale Assessment of Water Availability, Use, and Quality in Agroecosystems

Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory

Title: L-band brightness temperature disaggregation for use with S-band and C-band radiometer data for WCOM

Author
item YAO, P - Chinese Academy Of Sciences
item SHI, J. - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item ZHAO, T. - Chinese Academy Of Agricultural Sciences
item Cosh, Michael
item BINDLISH, R. - Goddard Space Flight Center

Submitted to: American Geophysical Union
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/1/2017
Publication Date: 12/11/2017
Citation: Yao, P., Shi, J., Zhao, T., Cosh, M.H., Bindlish, R. 2017. L-band brightness temperature disaggregation for use with S-band and C-band radiometer data for WCOM. American Geophysical Union. Abstract No. H53J-2089.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: There are two passive microwave sensors onboard the Water Cycle Observation Mission (WCOM), which includes a synthetic aperture radiometer operating at L-S-C bands and a scanning microwave radiometer operating from C- to W-bands. It provides a unique opportunity to disaggregate L-band brightness temperature (soil moisture) with S-band C-bands radiometer data. In this study, passive-only downscaling methodologies are developed and evaluated. Based on the radiative transfer modeling, it was found that the TBs (brightness temperature) between the L-band and S-band exhibit a linear relationship, and there is an exponential relationship between L-band and C-band. We carried out the downscaling results by two methods: (1) downscaling with L-S-C band passive measurements with the same incidence angle from payload IMI; (2) downscaling with L-C band passive measurements with different incidence angle from payloads IMI and PMI. The downscaling method with L-S bands with the same incident angle was first evaluated using SMEX02 data. The RMSE are 2.69 K and 1.52 K for H and V polarization respectively. The downscaling method with L-C bands is developed with different incident angles using SMEX03 data. The RMSE are 2.97 K and 2.68 K for H and V polarization respectively. These results showed that high-resolution L-band brightness temperature and soil moisture products could be generated from the future WCOM passive-only observations.