Seasonal-scale intercomparison of SMAP and fused SMOS-SMAP soil moisture products. Xing, Z., Li, X., Fan, L., Frappart, F., Kim, H., Karthikeyan, L., Konkathi, P., Liu, Y., Zhao, L., & Wigneron, J. Frontiers in Remote Sensing, 5:1440891, July, 2024.
Seasonal-scale intercomparison of SMAP and fused SMOS-SMAP soil moisture products [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Two L-band passive microwave satellite sensors, onboard the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) launched in 2009 and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) launched in 2015, are specifically designed for surface soil moisture (SM) monitoring. The first global continuous fused L-band satellite SM product based on SMOS and SMAP observations (SMOS-SMAP-INRAE-BORDEAUX, the so-called Fused-IB) was recently released to the public. Currently, the performance of Fused-IB has only been evaluated collectively over the entire data records in the study period, without specific evaluation for individual seasons. To fill this gap, this study intercompared the Fused-IB and the enhanced SMAP-L3 version 6 (SMAP-E) SM products against in situ SM data from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) from 2016 to 2020 regarding the whole period and different seasons. We aim to investigate the performance of these two products at different time scales and to explore the potential eco-hydrological factors (i.e., precipitation and vegetation) driving their seasonal variations. Results show that both SM products are in good agreement with the in situ measurements, demonstrating high median correlation ( R ) and low ub RMSD (median R = 0.70 and ub RMSD = 0.058 m 3 /m 3 for Fused-IB vs. R = 0.68 and ub RMSD = 0.059 m 3 /m 3 for SMAP-E) during 2016–2020. For most land use and land cover (LULC) types, Fused-IB outperformed SMAP-E with higher accuracy and lower errors, particularly in forests, partly due to the advantage of the robust SMAP-IB (SMAP-INRAE-BORDEAUX) algorithm used to generate Fused-IB in forests, which avoids the pronounced saturation effects of vegetation optical depth caused by relying on optical information. Besides, both products had superior performances across most LULC types in summer (JJA) and autumn (SON), yet increased uncertainties were observed in forests, grasslands, and croplands during spring (MAM) and winter (DJF). These uncertainties could be mainly attributed to the effects of vegetation growth in forests, grasslands and croplands, and the interception of water from rainfall events in grasslands. The results of this study can serve as a reference for algorithm developers to enhance the accuracy of SM and thus promote hydro-meteorological applications that benefit from L-band radiometer soil moisture products.
@article{xing_seasonal-scale_2024,
	title = {Seasonal-scale intercomparison of {SMAP} and fused {SMOS}-{SMAP} soil moisture products},
	volume = {5},
	issn = {2673-6187},
	url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsen.2024.1440891/full},
	doi = {10.3389/frsen.2024.1440891},
	abstract = {Two L-band passive microwave satellite sensors, onboard the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) launched in 2009 and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) launched in 2015, are specifically designed for surface soil moisture (SM) monitoring. The first global continuous fused L-band satellite SM product based on SMOS and SMAP observations (SMOS-SMAP-INRAE-BORDEAUX, the so-called Fused-IB) was recently released to the public. Currently, the performance of Fused-IB has only been evaluated collectively over the entire data records in the study period, without specific evaluation for individual seasons. To fill this gap, this study intercompared the Fused-IB and the enhanced SMAP-L3 version 6 (SMAP-E) SM products against
              in situ
              SM data from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) from 2016 to 2020 regarding the whole period and different seasons. We aim to investigate the performance of these two products at different time scales and to explore the potential eco-hydrological factors (i.e., precipitation and vegetation) driving their seasonal variations. Results show that both SM products are in good agreement with the
              in situ
              measurements, demonstrating high median correlation (
              R
              ) and low
              ub
              RMSD (median
              R
              = 0.70 and
              ub
              RMSD = 0.058 m
              3
              /m
              3
              for Fused-IB vs.
              R
              = 0.68 and
              ub
              RMSD = 0.059 m
              3
              /m
              3
              for SMAP-E) during 2016–2020. For most land use and land cover (LULC) types, Fused-IB outperformed SMAP-E with higher accuracy and lower errors, particularly in forests, partly due to the advantage of the robust SMAP-IB (SMAP-INRAE-BORDEAUX) algorithm used to generate Fused-IB in forests, which avoids the pronounced saturation effects of vegetation optical depth caused by relying on optical information. Besides, both products had superior performances across most LULC types in summer (JJA) and autumn (SON), yet increased uncertainties were observed in forests, grasslands, and croplands during spring (MAM) and winter (DJF). These uncertainties could be mainly attributed to the effects of vegetation growth in forests, grasslands and croplands, and the interception of water from rainfall events in grasslands. The results of this study can serve as a reference for algorithm developers to enhance the accuracy of SM and thus promote hydro-meteorological applications that benefit from L-band radiometer soil moisture products.},
	urldate = {2025-02-13},
	journal = {Frontiers in Remote Sensing},
	author = {Xing, Zanpin and Li, Xiaojun and Fan, Lei and Frappart, Frédéric and Kim, Hyunglok and Karthikeyan, Lanka and Konkathi, Preethi and Liu, Yuqing and Zhao, Lin and Wigneron, Jean-Pierre},
	month = jul,
	year = {2024},
	pages = {1440891},
}

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