Exploring the performance of microwave radiometers in monitoring soil water surplus and deficit in the pampas plains of Argentina
SMOS SCIENCE WORKSHOP-Proceedings. The European Space Agency (ESA), 2011, pp 33-36
The Argentine pampas is a wide plain with more than 40 million ha of lands suitable for cattle rearing and cropping. According to rainfall and soil quality patterns, the region was divided into five ecoregions: Mesopotamian, Rolling, Western, Flooding and Southern (Figure 1). Last decades have shown an increase in extreme conditions (droughts and floods) and the need for improving prediction models. In this regard, it is expected that satellite-derived soil moisture could contribute significantly in the predictive schemes. Over this area, the performance of both SMOS and AMSR-E signatures in monitoring events of soil water surplus and deficit are being investigated. To this aim, a sensitivity analysis based on temporal trends of L1 products (emissivity and polarization ratio) of both instruments is in progress. Also the retrieved soil moisture values of AMSR-E and SMOS are being compared using precipitation data and MODIS NDVI data as ancillary information. The final objective is to build a monitoring system based on current systems (AMSR-E and SMOS) and recently launched SAC-D/Aquarius. This work is part of an ongoing project related to mapping and monitoring of flooding events in La Plata Basin. A GIS of the Pampas plains is being built, dividing the area into different watersheds located in the five agro ecologically areas mentioned above. This presentation is based on the analysis of multitemporal AMSR-E and SMOS data acquired during 2010 at 15 sites of the pampas plains.