Estimating annual water storage variations in medium-scale (2000-10000km2) basins using microwave-based soil moisture retrievals

Abstract

Due to their shallow vertical support, remotely sensed surface soil moisture retrievals are commonly regarded as being of limited value for water budget applications requiring the characterization of temporal variations in total terrestrial water storage (dS/dt). However, advances in our ability to estimate evapotranspiration remotely now allow for the direct evaluation of approaches for quantifying dS/dt via water budget closure considerations. By applying an annual water budget analysis within a series of medium-scale (2000-10000km2) basins within the United States, we demonstrate that, despite their clear theoretical limitations, surface soil moisture retrievals derived from passive micro..