Abstract
We report a unique multiyear L-band microwave radiometry dataset collected at the Maqu site on the eastern Tibetan Plateau and demonstrate its utilities in advancing our understandings of microwave observations of land surface processes. The presented dataset contains measurements of L-band brightness temperature by an ELBARA-III microwave radiometer in horizontal and vertical polarization, profile soil moisture and soil temperature, turbulent heat fluxes, and meteorological data from the beginning of 2016 till August 2019, while the experiment is still continuing. Auxiliary vegetation and soil texture information collected in dedicated campaigns are also reported. This dataset can be used to validate the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite based observations and retrievals, verify radiative transfer model assumptions and validate land surface model and reanalysis outputs, retrieve soil properties, as well as to quantify land-atmosphere exchanges of energy, water and carbon and help to reduce discrepancies and uncertainties in current Earth System Models (ESM) parameterizations. Measurement cases in winter, pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon periods are presented.
Highlights
Background & SummaryMicrowave remote sensing of land surfaces on a global scale has mainly focused on soil moisture retrieval in the recent past
Soil moisture was recognized as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV) by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) in 2010, and several international programs have been established in recent years to produce global soil moisture data
The dataset is collected at the Maqu regional-scale soil moisture and soil temperature (SMST) monitoring network on the north-eastern Tibetan Plateau[10,18] and it mainly contains measurements of L-band brightness temperature in horizontal and vertical polarization by an ELBARA-III microwave radiometer, profile soil moisture and soil temperature by 5TM sensors, turbulent heat fluxes by a CSAT eddy covariance system, and meteorological data by an automatic weather station
Summary
Microwave remote sensing of land surfaces on a global scale has mainly focused on soil moisture retrieval in the recent past. As a further complication, when a land surface undergoes freeze-thaw processes, the behaviour of microwave observation abruptly changes in response to changes in the phase of the soil water (i.e., liquid or solid phase) at different soil depths While such a dynamic process in space and time can be observed and modelled with in situ measurements[12,13,14], current satellite retrievals can only provide freeze-thaw information (date and range of depths) using passive microwaves at a low resolution[15,16] or a binary indication of the frozen or thawed surfaces[17].
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