Identification

Title

Soil moisture sensing using spaceborne GNSS reflections: Comparison of CYGNSS reflectivity to SMAP soil moisture

Abstract

This paper quantifies the relationship between forward scattered L-band Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, recorded by the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) constellation and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) soil moisture (SM). Although designed for tropical ocean surface wind sensing, the CYGNSS receivers also record GNSS reflections over land. The CYGNSS observations of reflection power are compared to SMAP SM between March 2017 and February 2018. A strong, positive linear relationship exists between changes in CYGNSS reflectivity and changes in SMAP SM, but not between the absolute magnitudes of the two observations. The sensitivity of CYGNSS reflectivity to SM varies spatially and can be used to convert reflectivity to estimates of SM. The unbiased root-mean-square difference between daily averaged CYGNSS-derived SM and SMAP SM is 0.045cm(3)/cm(3) and is similarly low between CYGNSS and in situ SM. These results show that CYGNSS, and future GNSS reflection missions, could provide global SM observations.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pr7zr1

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-05-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact