A web-based system for satellite-based high-resolution global soil moisture maps

Abstract

Nowadays, a wide range of applications require near-real-time Surface Soil Moisture (SSM) data at high spatial resolution. However, operational passive microwave systems like SMOS and SMAP can only acquire such information at a relatively coarser resolution. Therefore, several downscaling algorithms have been developed to address this issue and provide SSM maps at a finer spatial scale. Users may, however, find it difficult to implement the downscaling algorithm due to the complexity of integrating various data sources. Disaggregation based on Physical and Theoretical scale Change (DisPATCh) is one of the algorithms that is widely accepted to downscale passive microwave SSM observations. But the complexity of modeling, the variety of data sources and formats of input data make it very difficult for users to implement the algorithm. Thus, we developed a Satellite-based Hydrological Monitoring System (SHMS), which facilitates this gap through the implementation of the DisPATCh algorithm to generate large-scale SSM maps with high resolution, which is achieved by combining SMAP and MODIS products. The System Usability Scale (SUS) method was used to evaluate the system's strengths and weaknesses. The SUS evaluation results show that 74.75% of SHMS users are satisfied with the system's performance.