A global comparison of alternate AMSR2 soil moisture products: Why do they differ?

摘要

This study assesses two remotely sensed soil moisture products from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), a sensor onboard the Global Change Observation Mission 1 - Water (GCOM-W1) that was launched in May 2012. The soil moisture products were retrieved by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) algorithm and the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) developed by the VU University Amsterdam, in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The two products are compared at the global scale. In addition, the products are evaluated against field measurements from 47 stations from the COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS) network which are located in the United States (36 stations), Australia (7 stations), Europe (2 stations) and Africa (2 stations).