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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #415409
Research Project: From Field to Watershed: Enhancing Water Quality and Management in Agroecosystems through Remote Sensing, Ground Measurements, and Integrative Modeling

Location: Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory

Title: Value of microwave soil moisture and thermal-infrared evapotranspiration retrievals for the mapping of irrigation coverage

Author
item Crow, Wade
item Anderson, Martha
item VOLK, JOHN - Desert Research Institute
item COLLIANDER, ANDREAS - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Submitted to: International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/30/2025
Publication Date: 8/13/2025
Citation: Crow, W.T., Anderson, M.C., Volk, J.M., Colliander, A. 2025. Value of microwave soil moisture and thermal-infrared evapotranspiration retrievals for the mapping of irrigation coverage. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation. 143. Article e104773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2025.104773.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2025.104773

Interpretive Summary: To better monitor global water resources, and understand how they will vary in the future, it is important to track the extent and intensity of irrigated agriculture. To this end, multiple strategies for tracking irrigation from spaceborne satellites have been introduced. Unfortunately, little cross-comparison has been conducted between these strategies, and their relative merits have not been adequately described. Here, we cross-evaluate strategies for monitoring irrigation based on two different branches of terrestrial remote sensing (i.e., thermal infrared and passive microwave). While information derived from both branches is useful for irrigation monitoring, results show that thermal-infrared remote sensing contains more relevant and useful information. This insight can be used to optimize future attempts to globally monitor irrigation from spaceborne sensors.

Technical Abstract: Within the past decade, there has been increased interest in the satellite-based detection of anomalous soil moisture (SM) and/or evapotranspiration (ET) signals associated with irrigated agriculture. However, little objective information is available concerning the relative merits of available ET versus SM satellite products for this purpose. Using - relatively more mature - irrigation products derived from a combination of ground data and visible/near-infrared remote sensing as a reference, we compare the ability of microwave SM and thermal-infrared ET satellite products for mapping coarse-scale (36-km) spatial variations in irrigation fraction across the conterminous United States. Results suggest that, while mapping skill exists in both products, the irrigation signal in current satellite-based ET products is stronger, and more readily interpretable, than in a comparable SM product.