Push Broom Microwave Radiometer Research Articles

A Simple Method to Disaggregate Passive Microwave-Based Soil Moisture

This paper develops two alternative approaches for downscaling passive microwave-derived soil moisture. Ground and airborne data collected over the Walnut Gulch experimental watershed during the Monsoon'90 experiment were used to test these approaches. These data consisted of eight micrometeorological stations (METFLUX) and six flights of the L-band Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR). For each PBMR flight, the 180-m resolution L-band pixels covering the eight METFLUX sites were first aggregated to generate a 500-m ldquocoarse-scalerdquo passive microwave pixel. The coarse-scale-derived soil moisture was then downscaled to the 180-m resolution using two different surface soil moisture indexes (SMIs): (1) the evaporative fraction (EF), which is the ratio of the evapotranspiration to the total energy available at the surface; and (2) the actual EF (AEF), which is defined as the ratio of the actual-to-potential evapotranspiration. It is well known that both SMIs depend on the surface soil moisture. However, they are also influenced by other factors such as vegetation cover, soil type, root-zone soil moisture, and atmospheric conditions. In order to decouple the influence of soil moisture from the other factors, a land surface model was used to account for the heterogeneity of vegetation cover, soil type, and atmospheric conditions. The overall accuracy in the downscaled values was evaluated to 3% (vol.) for EF and 2% (vol.) for AEF under cloud-free conditions. These results illustrate the potential use of satellite-based estimates of instantaneous evapotranspiration on clear-sky days for downscaling the coarse-resolution passive microwave soil moisture.

Assimilation of Disaggregated Microwave Soil Moisture into a Hydrologic Model Using Coarse-Scale Meteorological Data

AbstractNear-surface soil moisture retrieved from Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS)-type data is downscaled and assimilated into a distributed soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer (SVAT) model with the ensemble Kalman filter. Because satellite-based meteorological data (notably rainfall) are not currently available at finescale, coarse-scale data are used as forcing in both the disaggregation and the assimilation. Synthetic coarse-scale observations are generated from the Monsoon ‘90 data by aggregating the Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) pixels covering the eight meteorological and flux (METFLUX) stations and by averaging the meteorological measurements. The performance of the disaggregation/assimilation coupling scheme is then assessed in terms of surface soil moisture and latent heat flux predictions over the 19-day period of METFLUX measurements. It is found that the disaggregation improves the assimilation results, and vice versa, the assimilation of the disaggregated microwave soil moisture improves the spatial distribution of surface soil moisture at the observation time. These results are obtainable regardless of the spatial scale at which solar radiation, air temperature, wind speed, and air humidity are available within the microwave pixel and for an assimilation frequency varying from 1/1 day to 1/5 days.

Results of combining L- and C-band passive microwave airborne data over the Sahelian area

This study focuses on an area in the Sahelian zone, Niger, Western Africa, where the HAPEX-Sahel experiment took place in 1992. During the hydrologic atmospheric pilot experiment in the Sahel (HAPEX-Sahel), passive microwave data were acquired with airborne radiometer, the multifrequency (5 to 90 GHz) and dual polarization sensor, PORTOS, and the four-beam sensor push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR), operating at 1.4 GHz in H-polarization. The aim of this investigation is to monitor soil moisture and vegetation parameters by combining L-band C-band passive microwave airborne measurements. Through the relationships between soil moisture measurements from the 2 cm and 0.5 cm top layers, soil moisture is estimated for PORTOS data using the estimated soil moisture along the transects covered by the PBMR flights. The simplified radiative transfer model is then used to extract the optical thickness and the single scattering albedo of vegetation at C-band, and to evaluate the vegetation effect on the estimated soil moisture at L-band. An attempt to relate the estimated optical thickness from PORTOS data to the measured vegetation biophysical parameters [water content, biomass, leaf area index (LAI)] is presented.

Integration of soil moisture remote sensing and hydrologic modeling using data assimilation

The feasibility of synthesizing distributed fields of soil moisture by the novel application of four‐dimensional data assimilation (4DDA) applied in a hydrological model is explored. Six 160‐km2 push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR) images gathered over the Walnut Gulch experimental watershed in southeast Arizona were assimilated into the Topmodel‐based Land‐Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (TOPLATS) using several alternative assimilation procedures. Modification of traditional assimilation methods was required to use these high‐density PBMR observations. The images were found to contain horizontal correlations that imply length scales of several tens of kilometers, thus allowing information to be advected beyond the area of the image. Information on surface soil moisture also was assimilated into the subsurface using knowledge of the surface‐ subsurface correlation. Newtonian nudging assimilation procedures are preferable to other techniques because they nearly preserve the observed patterns within the sampled region but also yield plausible patterns in unmeasured regions and allow information to be advected in time.

Soil moisture estimation under a vegetation cover: Combined active passive microwave remote sensing approach

Data gathered during the NASA sponsored Multisensor Aircraft Campaign Hydrology (MACHYDRO) experiment in central Pennsylvania (U.S.A.) in July, 1990 have been analysed to study the combined use of active and passive microwave sensors for estimating soil moisture from vegetated areas. These data sets were obtained during an eleven-day period with NASA's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR), and Push-Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) over an instrumented watershed, which included agricultural fields with a number of different crop covers. Simultaneous ground truth measurements were also made in order to characterize the state of vegetation and soil moisture under a variety of meteorological conditions. Various multi-sensor techniques are currently under investigation to improve the accuracy of remote sensing estimates of the soil moisture in the presence of vegetation and surface roughness conditions using these data sets. One such algorithm involving combination of active and passive microwave sensors is presented here, and is applied to representative corn fields in the Mahantango watershed that was the focus of study during the MACHYDRO experiment. In this algorithm, a simple emission model is inverted to obtain Fresnel reflectivity in terms of ground and vegetation parameters. Since Fresnel reflectivity depends on soil dielectric constant, soil moisture is determined from reflectivity using dielectric-soil moisture relations. The algorithm requires brightness temperature, vegetation and ground parameters as the input parameters. The former is measured by a passive microwave technique and the later two are estimated by using active microwave techniques. The soil moisture estimates obtained by this combined use of active and passive microwave remote sensing techniques, show an excellent agreement with the in situ soil moisture measurements made during the MACHYDRO experiment.

Airborne microwave radiometry on a semi-arid area during HAPEX-Sahel

Airborne microwave radiometric measurements in the framework of the HAPEX-Sahel Experiment were performed by the Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) and the PORTOS radiometer. The flights of both radiometers produced an original set of data covering the 1.4–90 GHz range of frequency. The East and West Central Super Sites were the areas most intensively observed by the microwave radiometers. Over those sites, several brightness temperature ( T B) maps are available at seven dates distributed over a 1 month period in the middle of the rainy season. A comparison of the two radiometers demonstrates their radiometric quality and the precision of the localization of the microwave observations. At 1.4 GHz, the vegetation had very little effect on the soil microwave emission. Maps of soil moisture were developed using a single linear relationship between T B and the surface soil moisture. There is an important spatial heterogeneity in the soil moisture distribution, which is explained by both the soil moisture hydrodynamic properties and the localization of the precipitation fields. At 5.05 GHz, the vegetation must be accounted for to infer soil moisture from the microwave observations. A method based on a simple radiative transfer model and on microwave data has shown encouraging results.

The effects of laterite and associated terrain components on PBMR response in HAPEX-Sahel

Terrain characteristics such as roughness and vegetation have been shown to significantly affect the interpretation of microwave brightness temperatures ( T B s) for mapping soil moisture. This study, a part of the 1992 HAPEX-Sahel experiment (Hydrologic Atmospheric Pilot Experiment in the Sahel), aimed to determine the effects of laterite and associated terrain components (i.e. vegetation, soil, and exposed water bodies) on the T B of the Pushbroom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR, L-band, 21 cm wavelength), using the NS001 Thematic Mapper Simulator data as a surrogate for ground data. Coincident PBMR and NS001 data acquired from the high altitude (about 1500 m) long transect flights were processed to obtain T B s and radiances, respectively. The transects covered a range of moisture conditions. For this preliminary evaluation, no atmospheric corrections were applied, and the data sets were aligned by matching the acquisition times of the data records. NS001 pixels (about 4 m) were averaged to approximate the resolution of the PBMR (about 450 m), before their flight line data were compared. The laterite plateaux were found to have a surprisingly strong effect on the PBMR T B response. T B variations along the flight line could largely be explained by a combination of density and dielectric properties of laterite. The effect of surface moisture was distinguishable from the laterite effect, with the distinction apparently related to the occurrence of ephemeral pools of water after rainfall. Model simulated T B s agreed reasonably well with the observed T B s.

Mapping surface soil moisture using an aircraft-based passive microwave instrument: algorithm and example

Microwave remote sensing at L-band (21 cm wavelength) can provide a direct measurement of the surface soil moisture for a range of cover conditions and within reasonable error bounds. Surface soil moisture observations are rare and, therefore, the use of these data in hydrology and other disciplines has not been fully explored or developed. Without satellite-based observing systems, the only way to collect these data in large-scale studies is with an aircraft platform. Recently, aircraft systems such as the push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR) and the electronically scanned thinned array radiometer (ESTAR) have been developed to facilitate such investigations. In addition, field experiments have attempted to collect the passive microwave data as part of an integrated set of hydrologic data. One of the most ambitious of these investigations was the Washita'92 experiment. Preliminary analysis of these data has shown that the microwave observations are indicative of deterministic spatial and temporal variations in the surface soil moisture. Users of these data should be aware of a number of issues related to using aircraft-based systems and practical approaches to applying soil moisture estimation algorithms to large data sets. This paper outlines the process of mapping surface soil moisture from an aircraft-based passive microwave radiometer system for the Washita'92 experiment.

Some features observed by the L‐band push broom microwave radiometer over the Konza Prairie during 1985–1989

Airborne L‐band radiometric measurements were conducted over the Konza Prairie near Manhattan, Kansas, in the summers of 1985, 1987, 1988, and 1989 to study the relationship among surface microwave emission, soil moisture, and vegetation cover. The annual surface treatments that were applied to the watersheds in the experimental area appeared to show a significant impact on the surface microwave emission. A watershed that was burned every year showed a better sensitivity to soil moisture variation than those burned less frequently. This feature persisted even though the radiometric measurements were made over those watersheds that were burned in the same year. It was concluded that the burning process might not completely remove a thatch layer of efficient microwave absorption, which was developed through years of accumulation of senescent vegetation. Results from the analysis of these radiometric data sets also suggest the need of an adequate estimation of vegetation biomass in order to obtain a reliable retrieval of surface soil moisture from L‐band radiometric measurements. On the basis of the data acquired from the 1987 and 1989 field campaigns, the push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR) measurements are likely to give errors of the order of ±0.065 g/cm3 in surface soil moisture estimation if there are no measurements of vegetation biomass. Measurements of vegetation biomass to an accuracy of ±0.46 kg/m2 improve the corresponding PBMR estimation of surface soil moisture to an accuracy of ±0.032 g/cm3.

An interpretation of methodologies for indirect measurement of soil water content

Using a new technique referred to as the triangle method, surface soil water content and fractional vegetation cover were derived from surface radiant temperature measurements and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). Application of the technique is made with reference to NS001 multispectral scanner measurements made by a C-130 aircraft over the Mahantango Watershed in Pennsylvania. The derived surface soil water content values were compared with those obtained from the Push Broom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) aboard the same aircraft and with in-situ ground measurements. A large disparity was found to exist between all three measurements, suggesting that the surface becomes decoupled from the deeper substrate in regions of rapid drying, where large vertical gradients in soil water content may exist near the surface.

Push broom microwave radiometer observations of surface soil moisture in Monsoon '90

The push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR) was flown on six flights of the NASA C‐130 to map the surface soil moisture over the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service Walnut Gulch experimental watershed in southeastern Arizona. The PBMR operates at a wavelength of 21 cm and has four horizontally polarized beams which cover a swath of 1.2 times the aircraft altitude. By flying a series of parallel flight lines it was possible to map the microwave brightness temperature (TB), and thus the soil moisture, over a large area. In this case the area was approximately 8 by 20 km. The moisture conditions ranged from very dry, <2% by volume, to quite wet, >15%, after a heavy rain. The rain amounts ranged from less than 10 mm to more than 50 mm over the area mapped with the PBMR. With the PBMR we were able to observe the spatial variations of the rain amounts and the temporal variation as the soil dried. The TB values were registered to a Universal Transverse Mercator grid so that they could be compared to the rain gage readings and to the ground measurements of soil moisture in the 0‐ to 5‐cm layer. The decreases in TB were well correlated with the rainfall amounts, R2 = 0.9, and the comparison of Tg with soil moisture was also good with an R2 of about 0.8. For the latter, there was some dependence of the relation on location, which may be due to soil or vegetation variations over the area mapped. The application of these data to runoff forecasts and flux estimates will be discussed.

Comparisons of remotely sensed and model-simulated soil moisture over a heterogeneous watershed

Soil moisture estimates from a distributed hydrologic model and two microwave airborne sensors (Push Broom Microwave Radiometer and Synthetic Aperture Radar) are compared with ground measurements on two different scales, using data collected during a field experiment over a 7.4-k m 2 heterogeneous watershed located in central Pennsylvania. It is found that both microwave sensors and the hydrologic model successfully reflect the temporal variation of soil moisture. Watershed-averaged soil moistures estimated by the microwave sensors are in good agreement with ground measurements. The hydrologic model initialized by streamflow records yields estimates that are wetter than observations. The preliminary test of utilizing remotely sensed information as a feedback to correct the initial state of the hydrologic model shows promising results.

Runoff simulation sensitivity to remotely sensed initial soil water content

A variety of aircraft remotely sensed and conventional ground‐based measurements of volumetric soil water content (SW) were made over two subwatersheds (4.4 and 631 ha) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service Walnut Gulch experimental watershed during the 1990 monsoon season. Spatially distributed soil water contents estimated remotely from the NASA push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR), an Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics (IRE) multifrequency radiometer, and three ground‐based point methods were used to define prestorm initial SW for a distributed rainfall‐runoff model (KINEROS; Woolhiser et al., 1990) at a small catchment scale (4.4 ha). At a medium catchment scale (631 ha or 6.31 km2) spatially distributed PBMR SW data were aggregated via stream order reduction. The impacts of the various spatial averages of SW on runoff simulations are discussed and are compared to runoff simulations using SW estimates derived from a simple daily water balance model. It was found that at the small catchment scale the SW data obtained from any of the measurement methods could be used to obtain reasonable runoff predictions. At the medium catchment scale, a basin‐wide remotely sensed average of initial water content was sufficient for runoff simulations. This has important implications for the possible use of satellite‐based microwave soil moisture data to define prestorm SW because the low spatial resolutions of such sensors may not seriously impact runoff simulations under the conditions examined. However, at both the small and medium basin scale, adequate resources must be devoted to proper definition of the input rainfall to achieve reasonable runoff simulations.

Discrete scatter model for microwave radar and radiometer response to corn: comparison of theory and data

As part of the Multisensor Aircraft Campaign, MACHYDRO, two microwave sensors, NASA's Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR) and Pushbroom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) collected data over the same corn fields during the summer of 1990. During these flights, measurements were made on the ground of soil moisture and plant parameters. In this paper the measured canopy and soil parameters are used in a discrete scatter model to predict the response of both sensors (radar and radiometer). A distorted Born approximation is used to compute the scattering coefficient for the corn canopy. The backscatter coefficient gives the radar response and the radiometer response is obtained by integrating the bistatic coefficient over all scattering angles above ground. The objective of this analysis is to test the model and, in particular, to determine how well a single set of plant parameters and single model can yield agreement with both the radar and radiometer measurements. The model values are in reasonably good agreement with the measurements at horizontal polarization and reflect observed changes in soil moisture. >

Multitemporal passive microwave mapping in MACHYDRO'90

MACHYDR0'90 was an experiment conducted in Pennsylvania in 1990 to study the synergistic use of remote sensors in multitemporal hydrologic studies. As part of this mission the pushbroom microwave radiometer was flown and used to produce brightness temperature maps. Verification studies and vegetation algorithms for mixed land cover areas are described.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Relationships between Evaporative Fraction and Remotely Sensed Vegetation Index and Microwave Brightness Temperature for Semiarid Rangelands

Measurements of the microwave brightness temperature (TB) with the Pushbroom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) over the Walnut Gulch Experiment Watershed were made on selected days during the MONSOON 90 field campaign. The PBMR is an L-band instrument (21-cm wavelength) that can provide estimates of near-surface soil moisture over a variety of surfaces. Aircraft observations in the visible and near-infrared wavelengths collected on selected days also were used to compute a vegetation index. Continuous micrometeorological measurements and daily soil moisture samples were obtained at eight locations during experimental period. Two sites were instrumented with time domain reflectometry probes to monitor the soil moisture profile. The fraction of available energy used for evapotranspiration was computed by taking the ratio of latent heat flux (LE) to the sum of net radiation (Rn) and soil heat flux (G). This ratio is commonly called the evaporative fraction (EF) and normally varies between 0 and 1 under daytime convective conditions with minimal advection. A wide range of environmental conditions existed during the field campaign, resulting in average EF values for the study area varying from 0.4 to 0.8 and values of TB ranging from 220 to 280 K. Comparison between measured TB and EF for the eight locations showed an inverse relationship. Other days were included in the analysis by estimating TB with the soil moisture data. Because transpiration from the vegetation is more strongly coupled to root zone soil moisture, significant scatter in this relationship existed at high values of TB or dry near-surface soil moisture conditions. The variation in EF under dry near-surface soil moisture conditions was correlated to the amount of vegetation cover estimated with a remotely sensed vegetation index. These findings indicate that information obtained from optical and microwave data can be used for quantifying the energy balance of semiarid areas. The microwave data can indicate when soil evaporation is significantly contributing to EF, while the optical data is helpful for quantifying the spatial variation in EF due to the distribution of vegetation cover.

Pushbroom microwave radiometer results from HAPEX-MOBILHY

The NASA C-130 remote sensing aircraft was in Toulouse, France from 25 May through 4 July 1986, for participation in the HAPEX-MOBILHY program. Spectral and radiometric data were collected by C-130 borne sensors in the visible, infrared, and microwave wavelengths. These data provided information on the spatial and temporal variations of surface parameters such as vegetation indices, surface temperature, and surface soil moisture. The Pushbroom Microwave Radiometer (PBMR) was used to collect passive microwave brightness temperature data. This four-beam sensor operates at the 21-cm wavelength, providing cross-track coverage approximately 1.2 times the aircraft altitude. Observed brightness temperatures for the period were high, ranging from above 240 K about 290 K. Brightness temperature images appeared to correspond well to spatial and temporal soil moisture variation. Previous research has demonstrated that an approximately linear relationship exists between the surface emissivity and surface soil moisture. For these data, however, regression analysis did not indicate a strong linear relationship (r 2=0.32 and r 2=0.42 respectively) because of the limited range of soil moisture conditions encountered and the small number of ground measurements. When results from wetter soil conditions encountered in another experiment were included, the regression improved dramatically. Based on similar research with the PBMR and an understanding of the ground data collection program, this result was examined to produce recommendations for improvements to future passive microwave research and data collection programs. Examples of surface soil moisture maps generated with PBMR data are presented which appear to be representative of the actual soil moisture conditions.

Soil moisture and rainfall estimation over a semiarid environment with the ESTAR microwave radiometer

The application of an airborne electronically steered thinned array L-band radiometer (ESTAR) for soil moisture mapping was investigated over the semiarid rangeland Walnut Gulch Watershed in southeastern Arizona. During the experiment, antecedent rainfall and evaporation were very different and resulted in a wide range of soil moisture conditions. The high spatial variability of rainfall events within this region resulted in moisture conditions with distinct spatial patterns. Analysis showed a correlation between the decrease in brightness temperature after a rainfall and the amount of rain. The sensor's performance was verified using two approaches. First, the microwave data were used to predict soil moisture, and the predictions were compared to ground observations of soil moisture. A second verification used an extensive data set collected the previous year at the same site with a conventional L-band push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR). Both tests showed that the ESTAR is capable of providing soil moisture with the same level of accuracy as existing systems. >

Intercomparisons between passive and active microwave remote sensing, and hydrological modeling for soil moisture

Soil moisture estimates from a distributed hydrological model and two microwave remote sensors (Push Broom Microwave Radiometer and Synthetic Aperture Radar) were compared with the ground measurements collected during the MAC-HYDRO'90 experiment over a 7.4- km 2 watershed in central Pennsylvania. Various information, including rainfall, soil properties, land cover, topography and remote sensing imagery, were integrated and analyzed using an image integration technique. It is found that the hydrological model and both microwave sensors successfully pick up the temporal variation of soil moisture. Results also indicate the spatial soil moisture pattern can be remotely sensed within reasonable accuracy using existing algorithms. Watershed averaged soil moisture estimates from the hydrological model are wetter than remotely sensed data. It is difficult to conclude which instrument yield better performance for the studied case. The choice will be based on the intended applications and information that is available.

Determination of soil moisture distribution from impedance and gravimetric measurements

Daily measurements of the soil dielectric properties at 5 and 10 cm were obtained at five locations throughout the First ISLSCP Field Experiment (FIFE) test site during the 1987 intensive field campaigns (IFCs). An automated vector voltmeter was used to monitor the complex electrical impedance, at 10 MHz, of cylindrical volumes of soil delineated by specially designed soil moisture probes buried at these locations. The objective of this exercise was to test the hypothesis that the soil impedance is sensitive to the moisture content of the soil and that the imaginary part (that is, capacitive reactance) can be used to calculate the volumetric water content of the soil. These measurements were compared with gravimetric samples collected at these locations by the FIFE staff science team. In addition to the five fixed locations, measurements were made throughout each of the IFCs along three transects underlying airborne push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR) flights and compared with the results of gravimetric sampling done in support of these flights. Examination of the data reveals that the impedance probe is a more consistent source of time series information than traditional measurements and is potentially more closely linked to the physical parameters which are both remotely sensible and required for surface energy/mass exchange determination.