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Ocean salinity and soil moisture are key parameters for understanding the global water cycle, weather, and climate. These parameters are being measured with spaceborne radiometers operating in the L-band window at 1400–1427 MHz. Although man-made activity in this band is prohibited, radio frequency interference (RFI) is still a problem over significant portions of the earth. This paper reports a comparison of the RFI environment in this window as observed by two L-band radiometer systems, Aquarius and Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity. The observed RFI environment depends on the sources and also on the characteristics of the instrument. Comparing the observations provides insight into the extent of the problem (actual sources), the influence of the instrument on the observation of RFI, and on potential ways of mitigating the effects. As this report shows, the global distribution of RFI is largely consistent between the two instruments, but the details, especially at low levels of RFI, depend on the characteristics of the instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Soil moisture is one of the essential climate variables for the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) that has been prioritized by the ESA's Climate Change Initiative to construct its homogeneous long-term climate record. This requires a consistent characterization of the error structures in the individual data sets, which vary due to changes in instrument configuration and calibration, and retrieval algorithm design. In this paper, the random error and systematic differences in nine passive and active microwave satellite soil moisture products over Australia (time coverage: 1978–present) are estimated in a same manner for SM components at subseasonal and seasonal-to-interannual timescales separately. The multi-scale error structures are found to be non-trivial and vary between the products, giving cause for conducting multi-scale merging with awareness of these differences. Noticeable similarities between the error structures of the satellite products derived from same retrieval algorithm and same measuring frequency however suggest transferability of error parameters between them. Using partial rank correlation analysis, the error maps are linked to statistics on vegetation index, digital elevation, soil moisture and soil temperature, and land cover fractions and mixing in order to explain the observed variability and the similarities between the products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Over the past decade, soil moisture products derived from microwave remote sensing data have gained increasing attention for the monitoring of agricultural, hydrological and climate processes. ERS-1 and ERS-2 scatterometer-derived time series of data available since 1992 enable the user to analyze the change of soil moisture patterns over time and to monitor events deviating from the normal. In this paper, ERS scatterometer-derived soil moisture products are compared with known occurrences of heavy rain and drought related to the strong El Niño (EN) event of 1997/1998. We investigated globally if the typical EN-related short term climate changes can be depicted in soil moisture data. EN consequences and their manifestation in the data are presented for the Americas, Africa and Asia. Furthermore, the weather situation during the EN event in China is compared to the scatterometer-derived soil moisture data set in more detail. It could be observed that most EN-related climate variations on the different continents are clearly reflected by remote sensing soil moisture data. Heavy rain and drought conditions reported in daily media, science papers, and forecasts by the can be observed in anomaly data sets showing the deviation of soil moisture from the average. This also applies for the strong EN-related flood, which hit China in 1998 and following La Niña-related droughts. These analyses thus serve to demonstrate that information relevant to climatology is contained in the satellite scatterometer-derived soil moisture product, as well as in anomaly time series, derived from the existing soil moisture time series. Our procedure thus consisted of soil moisture time series calculation, soil moisture anomaly calculation, creation of time series and anomaly maps and the comparison of anomalies with meteorological data on three continents for the time period of outstanding El Nino years. The soil moisture data of TU Wien is available via the internet free of charge. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

During the last decade there has been considerable development in remote sensing techniques relating to soil moisture retrievals over large areas. Within the framework of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) a new soil moisture product has been generated, merging different satellite-based surface soil moisture based products. Such remotely sensed data need to be validated by means of in situ observations in different climatic regions. In that context, a comprehensive, distributed network of in situ measurement stations gathering information on soil moisture, as well as soil temperature, has been set up in recent years at the Finnish Meteorological Institute's (FMI) Sodankylä Arctic research station. The network forms a calibration and validation (CAL-VAL) reference site and is used as a tool to evaluate the validity of satellite retrievals of soil properties. In this paper we present the Sodankylä CAL-VAL reference site soil moisture observation network, its instrumentation as well as its areal representativeness over the study area and the region in general as a whole. As an example of data utilization, comparisons of spatially weighted average top-layer soil moisture observations between the years 2012 and 2014 against ESA CCI soil moisture data product estimates are presented and discussed. The comparisons were made against a single ESA CCI data product pixel encapsulating most of the Sodankylä CAL-VAL network sites. Comparisons are made with daily averaged and running weekly averaged soil moisture data as well as through application of an exponential soil moisture filter. The overall achieved correlation between the ESA CCI data product and in situ observations varies considerably (from 0.479 to 0.637) depending on the applied comparison perspective. Similarly, depending on the comparison perspective used, inter-annual correlation comparison results exhibit even more pronounced variation, ranging from 0.166 to 0.840. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the last decade there has been considerable development in remote sensing techniques relating to soil moisture retrievals over large areas. Within the framework of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Climate Change Initiative (CCI) a new soil moisture product has been generated, merging different satellite-based surface soil moisture based products. Such remotely sensed data need to be validated by means of in situ observations in different climatic regions. In that context, a comprehensive, distributed network of in situ measurement stations gathering information on soil moisture, as well as soil temperature, has been set up in recent years at the Finnish Meteorological Institute’s (FMI) Sodankylä Arctic research station. The network forms a calibration and validation (CAL–VAL) reference site and is used as a tool to evaluate the validity of satellite retrievals of soil properties. In this paper we present the Sodankylä CAL–VAL reference site soil moisture observation network, its instrumentation as well as its areal representativeness over the study area and the region in general as a whole. As an example of data utilization, comparisons of spatially weighted average top-layer soil moisture observations between the years 2012 and 2014 against ESA CCI soil moisture data product estimates are presented and discussed. The comparisons were made against a single ESA CCI data product pixel encapsulating most of the Sodankylä CAL–VAL network sites. Comparisons are made with daily averaged and running weekly averaged soil moisture data as well as through application of an exponential soil moisture filter. The overall achieved correlation between the ESA CCI data product and in situ observations varies considerably (from 0.479 to 0.637) depending on the applied comparison perspective. Similarly, depending on the comparison perspective used, inter-annual correlation comparison results exhibit even more pronounced variation, ranging from 0.166 to 0.840. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impact of climate change on terrestrial wet and dry changes and the relationship between the two is of great significance to the sustainable development of terrestrial ecosystems. The farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China (FPENC) is an area that is sensitive to climate change, suffering from perennial drought and a clear aridification trend. Unlike previous single-factor, single-timescale studies, we identified aridification in the region based on a dataset established by remote sensing and ground-based monitoring stations from a combination of two perspectives: climate and soil. The results show that, in terms of climate, the period from 2000 to 2019 was the driest in the region during the last 120 years , and the summer drought was the most severe and shifted from a summer to spring drought; in terms of soil, the soil aridification trend in the region was severe, with 16.1% of the areas becoming significantly drier (P < 0.1) among the years and 41.6% in spring, respectively. Similar to climate change, soils exhibited recessive aridification due to the counterbalancing effect of the dry and wet seasons within the year. Then the coupling relationship between climate change and soil aridification was established in time and space. Moreover, the spatiotemporal response patterns of both were obtained. The results showed that the frequency of soil drought under meteorological drought conditions showed an increasing trend and that the sensitivity of soil drought occurrence increased. Among them, the effect of precipitation on relative soil moisture (RSM) was immediate, and the effect of prolonged warming on RSM is greater. The area of soil aridification that was caused by climatic aridification in spring accounted for 13.7% of the entire area. The regional aridification research mode proposed in this paper can provide ideas for subsequent studies. [Display omitted] • A comprehensive judgment mode of the regional aridification combining climate elements, soil moisture was established. • Over the last 20 years, the central part of the FPENC showed overall warming and wetting of the climate. • Over the last 20 years, the trend of the soil aridification in the central part of the FPENC remained severe. • The counterbalancing effect of the dry and wet seasons leads to recessive aridification. • The sensitivity of the occurrences of soil drought to the climate drought anomalies continuously became stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the impact of climate change on terrestrial wet and dry changes and the relationship between the two is of great significance to the sustainable development of terrestrial ecosystems. The farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China (FPENC) is an area that is sensitive to climate change, suffering from perennial drought and a clear aridification trend. Unlike previous single-factor, single-timescale studies, we identified aridification in the region based on a dataset established by remote sensing and ground-based monitoring stations from a combination of two perspectives: climate and soil. The results show that, in terms of climate, the period from 2000 to 2019 was the driest in the region during the last 120 years , and the summer drought was the most severe and shifted from a summer to spring drought; in terms of soil, the soil aridification trend in the region was severe, with 16.1% of the areas becoming significantly drier (P < 0.1) among the years and 41.6% in spring, respectively. Similar to climate change, soils exhibited recessive aridification due to the counterbalancing effect of the dry and wet seasons within the year. Then the coupling relationship between climate change and soil aridification was established in time and space. Moreover, the spatiotemporal response patterns of both were obtained. The results showed that the frequency of soil drought under meteorological drought conditions showed an increasing trend and that the sensitivity of soil drought occurrence increased. Among them, the effect of precipitation on relative soil moisture (RSM) was immediate, and the effect of prolonged warming on RSM is greater. The area of soil aridification that was caused by climatic aridification in spring accounted for 13.7% of the entire area. The regional aridification research mode proposed in this paper can provide ideas for subsequent studies. [Display omitted] • A comprehensive judgment mode of the regional aridification combining climate elements, soil moisture was established. • Over the last 20 years, the central part of the FPENC showed overall warming and wetting of the climate. • Over the last 20 years, the trend of the soil aridification in the central part of the FPENC remained severe. • The counterbalancing effect of the dry and wet seasons leads to recessive aridification. • The sensitivity of the occurrences of soil drought to the climate drought anomalies continuously became stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]