Towards LPRM-based soil moisture retrievals with multi-angular microwave observations from SMOS

Abstract

Passive microwave remote sensing by the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) satellite enables observations of surface soil moisture at global scale. This involves a retrieval process that uses a radiative transfer model to relate satellite-observed radiances to geophysical variables such as soil dielectric constant and soil moisture. The L-MEB (L-band Microwave Emission of the Biosphere) based retrieval products of SMOS have previously been evaluated to show reasonably good agreement with ground measurements. An alternative product is based on the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM), which has been adapted for a wide range of X- and C-band sensors to retrieve soil moisture from single-..