A review of the applications of ASCAT [ Advanced SCATterometer] soil moisture products

Remote sensing of soil moisture has reached a level of good maturity and accuracy for which the retrieved products are ready to use in real-world applications. Due to the importance of soil moisture in the partitioning of the water and energy uxes between the land surface and the atmosphere, a wide range of applicationscanbene tfromtheavailabilityofsatellitesoilmoisture products. Speci cally, the Advanced SCATterometer (ASCAT) on boardtheseriesofMeteorologicalOperational(Metop)satellitesis providing a near real time (and long-term, 9+ years starting from January2007)soilmoistureproduct,withanearlydaily(sub-daily after the launch of Metop-B) revisit time and a spatial sampling of 12.5 and 25 km. This study rst performs a review of the climatic, meteorological,andhydrologicalstudiesthatusesatellitesoilmoisture products for a better understanding of the water and energy cycle. Speci cally, applications that consider satellite soil moistureproductforimprovingtheirpredictionsareanalyzed anddiscussed. Moreover, four real examples are shown in which ASCAT soil moisture observations have been successfully applied toward: 1) numerical weather prediction, 2) rainfall estimation, 3) ood forecasting,and4)droughtmonitoringandprediction.Finally,the strengthsandlimitationsofASCATsoilmoistureproductsandthe way forward for fully exploiting these data in real-world applications are discussed.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Brocca, L., Crow, W.T., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Rosnay, P. de, Enenkel, M., Hahn, S., Amarnath, Giriraj, Camici, S., Tarpanelli, A., Wagner, W.
Format:	Journal Article biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 2017-05
Subjects:	soil moisture, hydrology, remote sensing, weather forecasting, radar, meteorological observations, satellite observation, hydrological cycle, climate change, rain, flooding, precipitation, evaporation, evapotranspiration, landslides,
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/81217 https://doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2017.2651140
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