Title
The Evaluation of SMAP Enhanced Soil Moisture Products Using High-Resolution Model Simulations and In-Situ Observations on the Tibetan Plateau.
Abstract
The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission was designed to provide a global mapping of soil moisture (SM) measured by L-band passive and active microwave sensors. In this study, we evaluate the newly released SMAP enhanced SM products over the Tibetan Plateau by performing comparisons among SMAP standard products, in-situ observations and Community Land Model (CLM) simulations driven by high-resolution meteorological forcing. At local scales, the enhanced SMAP products, the standard products and CLM simulations all generally compare well with the in-situ observations. The SMAP products show stronger correlations (0.64-0.88) but slightly larger unbiased root mean square errors (ubRMSE, -0.06) relative to the CLM simulations (0.58-0.79 and 0.037-0.047, for correlation and ubRMSE, respectively). At the regional scale, both SMAP products show similar spatial distributions of SM on the TP (Tibetan Plateau), although, as expected, the enhanced product provides more fine details. The SMAP enhanced product is in good agreement with model simulations with respect to temporal and spatial variations in SM over most of the TP. Regions with low correlation between SMAP enhanced products and model simulations are mainly located in the northwestern TP and regions of complex topography, where meteorological stations are sparse and non-existent or elevation is highly variable. In such remote regions, CLM simulations may be problematic due to inaccurate land cover maps and/or uncertainties in meteorological forcing. The independent, high-resolution observations provided by SMAP could help to constrain the model simulation and, ultimately, improve the skill of models in these problematic regions.
Year
DOI
Venue
2018
10.3390/rs10040535
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
Field
DocType
Soil Moisture Active Passive,evaluation,in situ observations,CLM simulations
Plateau,In situ,Remote sensing,Root mean square,Forcing (mathematics),Community land model,Water content,Elevation,Geology,Land cover
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
10
4
2072-4292
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
6
Authors
10
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Chengwei Li1113.61
Hui Lu26620.59
Kun Yang36418.24
Menglei Han441.48
Jonathon Wright520.74
Yingying Chen653.20
Le Yu717421.48
Shiming Xu821.72
Xiaomeng Huang932530.87
Wei Gong1010.36