Comparing Soil Moisture retrievals from SMOS, ASCAT and AMSR-E over the Pampas Plains, Argentina
IGARSS 2014 & 35TH Canadian Symposium on Remote sensing – Energy and our changing planet- Québec, Canada- July 13-18, 2014
Abstract: Remotely sensed soil moisture (SM) studies have mainly focused on retrievals using active and passive microwave (MW) sensors. In this line of work, Argentine is strongly involved in MW satellite mission developments. Its participation in SACD/Aquarius mission is known, as well as SAOCOM radar SM mission under development by CONAE (http://www.conae.gov.ar). The main purpose of this mission is the retrieval of SM in the Pampas Plains, a huge area dedicated to agriculture and cattle raising. Although several coarse resolution SM products from different missions (passive and active) are available, the lack of an appropriate in situ network for SM validation has hampered their use for monitoring purposes (droughts and floods) and their assimilation in atmospheric and meteorological models. With this motivation in mind, we started to look at alternative SM products evaluation methods ([1], [2]) that do not require a large in situ network. The objective of this work is to use spatial and temporal correlation analysis and Triple Collocation (TC) error analysis to evaluate patterns and behavior of coarse resolution SM products in the Pampas Plains. The approach is focused on interpretation of TC error maps using local ancillary data, additional satellite data (MODIS, TRMM), analysis of optical depth products and statistical indicators.