Satellite Observation of Earth's Environment and Global Water Cycle using Passive Microwave Remote Sensing Techniques
- Paper number
IAC-09.B1.I.11
- Author
Dr. Kyoung-Wook Jin, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea, Republic of
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Monitoring of Earth's environment and its changes driven by global warming can be greatly enhanced through observations from space combined with in situ measurements. Satellite remote sensing techniques provide valuable new information for climate change and related water cycle of the Earth due to the regular revisit time and large spatial coverage available from space. Quantitative measurements of the key components of the global water cycle (precipitation and soil moisture) have been developed using passive microwave remote sensing techniques and have shown promising results. The rainfall retrieval algorithm provides means to estimate the atmospheric water flux, contributing to the main water resources over the land and ocean. The soil moisture algorithm enables us to monitor the storage term, which regulates the water and waver vapor fluxes over the land surface. However, there are many challenges to reduce retrieval uncertainties. The land portion of the rainfall algorithm shows large uncertainty due to its indirect relationship between the rainfall and the observed brightness temperatures. On the other hand, the soil moisture algorithm’s uncertainty is largely driven by the effect of vegetation on the retrieval and also by the need to use the higher-frequency X-band channel (10GHz) in stead of the C-band (6GHz) due to the RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) issue. To improve global water cycle research, a future mission, SMAP (Soil Moisture Active and Passive), was proposed and is being developed based on the heritage of the Hydros mission. The SMAP mission is very promising due to the unique features of the instrument design. The combined L-band passive and active microwave sensor has advantages. L-band (about 1.4GHz) frequency will increase the sensing depth and sensitivity considerably over vegetated areas. In addition, the substantially improved spatial resolution of the radar (1-3km) will lead to synergic effects in improving spatial resolution when combined with the radiometer. In this talk, three main subjects will be discussed. First, basic principles of passive microwave remote sensing based on a radiative transfer model will be introduced. Second, retrieval algorithms (rainfall and soil moisture) used for AMSR-E (Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS) data for the global water cycle research will be presented. Third, application of the new water and carbon cycle mission, SMAP, will be introduced.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-09.B1.I.11.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.