H14F-06
Intercomparison of SMAP L2/L3 Soil Moisture with Synergistic Satellite Products

Monday, 14 December 2015: 17:15
3022 (Moscone West)
Mariko Sofie Burgin1, Andreas Colliander1, Eni G Njoku2, Steven Chan1, Narendra N Das1, Seungbum Kim1, Francois Cabot3, Yann H Kerr4, Rajat Bindlish5 and Thomas J Jackson6, (1)NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (2)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, United States, (3)Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphere, Toulouse Cedex 9, France, (4)CNES French National Center for Space Studies, Toulouse Cedex 09, France, (5)Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, MD, United States, (6)USDA ARS, Pendleton, OR, United States
Abstract:
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite was successfully launched on January 31, 2015. It carries an L-band radar and L-band radiometer that provide global radar backscatter and brightness temperature measurements every 2-3 days. SMAP retrieves the soil moisture content of the upper ~5 cm of soil with three different retrieval methods and inherent spatial resolutions: passive (L2/3_SM_P at 36 km), active (L2/3_SM_A at 3 km), and active/passive (L2/3_SM_AP at 9 km). Besides their distinct spatial resolutions, the three soil moisture products have other varying attributes that depend on the inputs to geophysical inversion, sensitivity to soil moisture, and the general retrieval approach.

Calibration and validation of the data products are critical to provide the accuracy assessments and credibility required for widespread product usage. These assessments include quantitative estimates of uncertainty based on direct comparisons with independent measurements. SMAP will use a wide range of methodologies in calibrating and validating the mission science products including in situ soil moisture networks, satellite products, model-based products and measurements in field experiments.

In this presentation, we focus on the comparison of the SMAP L2/3 soil moisture products with other satellite products including primarily SMOS and Aquarius, to understand the similarities and differences and to thereby potentially improve the performance of the SMAP science algorithms. The SMAP mission is linked by a common L-band frequency with the SMOS and Aquarius missions, and by its soil moisture products with the GCOM-W and ASCAT missions that operate at higher frequencies. These satellite missions produce operational soil moisture products that overlap in time and space with SMAP. The comparison will be conducted with close attention to limiting factors such as the quality of the alternative products, differences in overpass times, instrument resolution, operating frequencies, and differences in retrieval algorithms. The results of the comparison and an evaluation of the lessons learned will be presented at the talk.

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