Downscaling SMAP and SMOS soil moisture with moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer visible and infrared products over southern Arizona

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2017-01-01
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Knipper, Kyle
Hogue, Terri
Franz, Kristie
Scott, Russell
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Franz, Kristie
Professor and Department Chair of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences
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Geological and Atmospheric Sciences

The Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences offers majors in three areas: Geology (traditional, environmental, or hydrogeology, for work as a surveyor or in mineral exploration), Meteorology (studies in global atmosphere, weather technology, and modeling for work as a meteorologist), and Earth Sciences (interdisciplinary mixture of geology, meteorology, and other natural sciences, with option of teacher-licensure).

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The Department of Geology and Mining was founded in 1898. In 1902 its name changed to the Department of Geology. In 1965 its name changed to the Department of Earth Science. In 1977 its name changed to the Department of Earth Sciences. In 1989 its name changed to the Department of Geological and Atmospheric Sciences.

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1898-present

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  • Department of Geology and Mining (1898-1902)
  • Department of Geology (1902-1965)
  • Department of Earth Science (1965-1977)
  • Department of Earth Sciences (1977-1989)

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Geological and Atmospheric Sciences
Abstract

This current study explores satellite-based soil moisture downscaling approaches and applies them to common passive microwave retrievals. Three variations of a second-order polynomial regression were tested based on the surface temperature/greenness index concept and merged information from higher spatial resolution moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer with soil moisture active passive (SMAP) and soil moisture and ocean salinity (SMOS) products to obtain soil moisture estimates at higher resolutions (1 km). Downscaled products were evaluated at the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in southeastern Arizona. Results show slight differences in performance among the three downscaling methods and little improvement between original low-resolution products and downscaled (1 km) products. Spatial analysis over WGEW demonstrates downscaled products were able to decipher small-scale heterogeneities in surface soil moisture, though spatial variability remains low compared to observations with a difference of only 0.06    m 3 /m 3 in spatial standard deviation between observations and the mean between downscaling techniques. Results demonstrate the ability of both SMOS and SMAP to represent soil moisture accurately on the point scale without applying downscaling techniques in the region under study.

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This article is published as Kyle R. Knipper, Terri S. Hogue, Kristie J. Franz, Russell L. Scott, “Downscaling SMAP and SMOS soil moisture with moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer visible and infrared products over southern Arizona,” J. Appl. Remote Sens. 11(2), 026021 (2017), doi: 10.1117/1.JRS.11.026021.

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