Abstract
Soil moisture is widely recognized as a key parameter in the mass and energy balance between the land surface and the atmosphere and, hence, the potential societal benefits of an accurate estimation of soil moisture are immense. Recently, scientific community is making great effort for addressing the estimation of soil moisture over large areas through in situ sensors, remote sensing and modelling approaches. The different techniques used for addressing the monitoring of soil moisture for hydrological applications are briefly reviewed here. Moreover, some examples in which in situ and satellite soil moisture data are successfully employed for improving hydrological monitoring and predictions (e.g., floods, landslides, precipitation and irrigation) are presented. Finally, the emerging applications, the open issues and the future opportunities given by the increased availability of soil moisture measurements are outlined.
Highlights
The importance of soil moisture in the hydrological cycle has been stressed in a number of papers [1,2,3,4] and scientific projects
Notwithstanding soil recognized as aasfundamental physical variable, e.g., Notwithstanding soil moisture moistureisislargely largely recognized a fundamental physical variable, soil moisture is included at theat2nd the Essential
We focus only on active and passive microwave-based products as they are the most used methods, providing operational soil moisture products [45]; the reader is referred to Rahimzadeh-Bajgiran and Berg [44]
Summary
The importance of soil moisture in the hydrological cycle has been stressed in a number of papers [1,2,3,4] and scientific projects An overview of the potential of soil moisture observations for improving hydrological applications is presented. The understanding that we gained in the assessment of soil moisture spatial-temporal variability is illustrated. We provide a list of the hydrological applications that have benefited (and will benefit) from the use of soil moisture observations. We wanted soil moisture and our view for future opportunities to be analysed. We wanted to identify the main to identify the main need to be filled in future investigations for improving the knowledge gaps thatknowledge need to be gaps filledthat in future investigations for improving the monitoring, and the monitoring, and the use, of soil moisture observations in hydrological (and others) applications. Use, of soil moisture observations in hydrological (and others) applications
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