Review of the CALIMAS Team Contributions to European Space Agency's Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Mission Calibration and Validation

Camps, Adriano ... et al.-- 38 pages, 22 figuresThis work summarizes the activities carried out by the SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) Barcelona Expert Center (SMOS-BEC) team in conjunction with the CIALE/Universidad de Salamanca team, within the framework of the European Space Agency (ESA) CALIMAS project in preparation for the SMOS mission and during its first year of operation. Under these activities several studies were performed, ranging from Level 1 (calibration and image reconstruction) to Level 4 (land pixel disaggregation techniques, by means of data fusion with higher resolution data from optical/infrared sensors). Validation of SMOS salinity products by means of surface drifters developed ad-hoc, and soil moisture products over the REMEDHUS site (Zamora, Spain) are also presented. Results of other preparatory activities carried out to improve the performance of eventual SMOS follow-on missions are presented, including GNSS-R to infer the sea state correction needed for improved ocean salinity retrievals and land surface parameters. Results from CALIMAS show a satisfactory performance of the MIRAS instrument, the accuracy and efficiency of the algorithms implemented in the ground data processors, and explore the limits of spatial resolution of soil moisture products using data fusion, as well as the feasibility of GNSS-R techniques for sea state determination and soil moisture monitoringThis work has been performed under research grants TEC2005-06863-C02-01/TCM, ESP2005-06823-C05, ESP2007-65667-C04, AYA2008-05906-C02-01/ESP and AYA2010-22062-C05 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and a EURYI 2004 award from the European Science FoundationPeer Reviewe

Acquisition and processing software for an airborne soil moisture mapper LBand radiometer

Treball confidencial fins el 19/07/2015The improvement in weather forecast and climate motorization, to prevent for example natural disasters, requires global scale knowledge of the soil moisture (SM) and the surface salinity (SSS), which are non-existent at present due to the difficulty to carry out in-situ measurements. These parameters influence the heat exchange among land, sea and air. On one hand, thanks to the SM, the amount of water on Earth and the exchange of energy between the land’s surface and the atmosphere can be known. On the other hand, the knowledge of the distribution of the SSS will inform about sea currents and differences between evaporation and precipitation. The quantification of these parameters will contribute to improve the weather forecasts, hydrological studies, vegetation motorization, and risk of forest fires. As part of the program “The living planet programme: Earth Explorer Opportunity Missions”, the European Space Agency (ESA) selected in 1999 the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, designed to observe soil moisture over land and salinity over the oceans. It was launched in 2009 and has put in orbit the first microwave imaging radiometer using aperture synthesis. Over the sea, sea surface salinity will be remotely measured by means of L-band (1400-1427 MHz) microwave radiometry. As the brightness temperature also depends on the sea surface temperature and on the sea state, post-processing corrections are needed to get the surface salinity. Over land, soil moisture is retrieved from the changes in the L-band brightness temperature, although post processing correction for surface roughness and vegetation are also required

Soil moisture retrieval using an airborne L-Band Radiometer

This work project will be divided in 5 chapters. Firstly, chapter two reviews the basics of radiometry, emission theory and types of radiometer. Chapter three covers the avionic system in place aboard the platform, describing the set of sensors aboard. Chapter four describes the main functions and algorithms implemented in the ARIEL Processor - Soil Moisture Retrieval (AP-SMR). The main steps of data processing will be explained: synchronisation, calibration and soil moisture retrieval. Chapter five describes the graphical interface of AP-SMR, how to use it, and how to get the geo-referenced images over Google Earth. Chapter six presents the soil moisture estimations obtained and comments the radiometric data from two different flights. Finally chapter seven presents some conclusions and future research lines

Multiscale soil moisture retrievals from microwave remote sensing observations

Memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por María Piles Guillem para optar al grado de Doctora por la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), realizada bajo la dirección del Dr. Adriano Camps y de la Dra. Mercè Vall-llossera.-- 159 pages[EN] Soil moisture is a key state variable of the Earth’s system; it is the main variable that links the Earth’s water, energy and carbon cycles. Soil moisture variations affect the evolution of weather and climate over continental regions, and accurate observations of the Earth’s changing soil moisture are needed to achieve sustainable land and water management, and to enhance weather and climate forecasting skill, flood prediction and drought monitoring. This Ph.D. Thesis focuses on measuring the Earth’s surface soil moisture from space at a global and regional scale. [...][ES] La humedad del suelo es la variable que regula los intercambios de agua, energía, y carbono entre la tierra y la atmósfera. Mediciones precisas de humedad son necesarias para una gestión sostenible de los recursos de agua del planeta, para mejorar las predicciones meteorológicas y climáticas, y para la detección y monitorización de sequías e inundaciones. Esta tesis se centra en la medición de la humedad superficial de la Tierra desde el espacio, a escalas global y regional. [...]This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education under the FPU grant AP2005-4912 and projects ESP2007-65667-C04-02 and AYA2008-05906-C02-01/ESPPeer Reviewe