Development of a consistent soil moisture decadal data record from multiple satellites
Authors: Chan Steven 
Published: March 2020

&lt;p&gt;In recent decades, passive microwave remote sensing at lower frequencies (1-10 GHz) has become a primary means to routinely monitor soil moisture on a global scale. Despite the success of a number of L- and C/X-band radiometers independently developed and launched by various government agencies over the last two decades, there has not been a concerted effort to leverage the combined brightness temperature (T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt;) observations from these instruments to derive an integrated soil moisture data record within a consistent geophysical inversion framework. The availability of such a consistent data record would provide critical insights into the dynamics of surface hydrological processes, including anomaly detection, interannual variability, and monitoring of the onset and evolution of long-term spatial and temporal variability due to natural or anthropogenic changes in land surface conditions.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Recent advances in T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; intercalibration on current and historical satellites have resulted in the availability of consistent T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; observations that extend from years to decades. For passive microwave remote sensing of soil moisture, satellite intercalibration undertaken by the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission [1-2] has resulted in a decadal repository of intercalibrated T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; observations at X-band (10.7 GHz) frequencies from GMI (2014-present), AMSR2 (2012-present), WindSat (2003-present), TMI (1997-2015) and AMSR-E (2002-2011). Likewise, recent studies on relative calibration by SMOS (2009-present) and SMAP (2015-present) teams have also enabled the production of a similar repository of intercalibrated T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; observations for soil moisture estimation at L-band (1.41 GHz) frequencies [3]. When used as inputs to a common geophysical inversion model, these T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; observations can be used for soil moisture estimation. Because consistency has been reinforced at the level of T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; observations among satellites, the resulting record of soil moisture retrieval is expected to exhibit the same internal consistency. Together, therefore, these T&lt;sub&gt;B&lt;/sub&gt; repositories provide the foundation for the development of current and historical consistent soil moisture data records with more frequent and wider coverage than any single satellite can achieve alone.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this presentation, we will describe a NASA-funded initiative [4] (MEaSUREs: Making Earth System Data Records for use in Research Environments) to create a consistent soil moisture decadal data record from multiple satellites for terrestrial hydrological applications. Preliminary results, ancillary data preparation, product delivery schedule, and deliverables of this initiative will be discussed in this presentation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;&lt;li&gt;Berg, W., S. Bilanow, R. Chen, S. Datta, D. Draper, H. Ebrahimi, S. Farrar, W. Jones, R. Kroodsma, D. McKague, V. Payne, J. Wang, T. Wilheit, and J. Yang. 2016. &amp;#8220;Intercalibration of the GPM Microwave Radiometer Constellation,&amp;#8221; J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 33, pp. 2639&amp;#8211;2654, doi: 10.1175/JTECH-D-16-0100.1.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Biswas, S. K., S. Farrar, K. Gopalan, A. Santos-Garcia, W. L. Jones and S. Bilanow. 2013. &amp;#8220;Intercalibration of Microwave Radiometer Brightness Temperatures for the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission,&amp;#8221; in IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 1465&amp;#8211;1477. doi: 10.1109/TGRS.2012.2217148.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Bindlish, R., S. Chan, T. Jackson, A. Colliander, and Y. Kerr. 2018. &amp;#8220;Integration of SMAP and SMOS Observations,&amp;#8221; 2018 IEEE IGARSS, Valencia, Spain.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&quot;MEaSUREs: Making Earth System Data Records for Use in Research Environments,&quot; Accessed Nov 8, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/community/community-data-system-programs/measures-projects&lt;/li&gt;
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