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Title: Soil Moisture Product Validation of AMSR-E 2002-2009

Author
item Jackson, Thomas
item Cosh, Michael
item BINDLISH, R - Science Systems, Inc

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/12/2010
Publication Date: 10/25/2010
Citation: Jackson, T.J., Cosh, M.H., Bindlish, R. 2010. Soil moisture product validation of AMSR-E 2002-2009 [abstract]. NASA A-Train Symposium. 2010 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Four soil moisture networks were developed and used as part of the Advance Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) validation program. Each network is located in a different climatic region of the U.S., and each provides estimates of the average soil moisture over highly instrumented experimental watersheds and surrounding areas that approximate the size of the AMSR-E footprint. Soil moisture measurements have been made since the launch of AMSR-E and provide seven year period of record, 2002-2009. The NASA and JAXA standard soil moisture products were compared to the network observations; along with two alternative soil moisture products developed using the single channel algorithm (SCA) and land parameter retrieval model (LPRM). The metric used for validation is the root mean square error (RMSE) of the soil moisture estimate as compared to the in situ data. The mission requirement for accuracy defined by the space agencies is 0.06 m3/m3. The statistical results indicate that each algorithm performs differently with respect to each site. Neither the NASA nor JAXA standard products provide reliable estimates for all the conditions represented by the four watershed sites. When site specific corrections were applied, all algorithms had approximately the same level error and correlation. These results clearly show that there is much room for improvement in the algorithms currently in use by JAXA and NASA. They also illustrate the potential pitfalls in using the products without a careful evaluation.