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Sciences in Cold and Arid Regions ›› 2019, Vol. 11 ›› Issue (6): 461-469.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1226.2019.00461.

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An evaluation of soil moisture from AMSR-E over source area of the Yellow River, China

TangTang Zhang1,2(),Mekonnen Gebremichael2,Akash Koppa2,XianHong Meng1,3,Qun Du4,Jun Wen5   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Land Surface Process and Climate Change in Cold and Arid Regions, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, Gansu 730000, China
    2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095-1593, USA
    3. Zoige Wetland and Ecosystem Research Station, NIEER, Zoige, Sichuan 624500, China
    4. State Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Boundary Layer Physics and Atmospheric Chemistry, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
    5. College of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan 610225, China
  • Received:2019-07-23 Accepted:2019-11-15 Online:2019-12-31 Published:2020-01-07
  • Contact: TangTang Zhang E-mail:ttzhang@lzb.ac.cn

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Abstract:

In this study, in-situ soil moisture measurements are used to evaluate the accuracy of three AMSR-E soil moisture products from NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), JAXA (Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) and VUA (Vrije University Amsterdam and NASA) over Maqu County, Source Area of the Yellow River (SAYR), China. Results show that the VUA soil moisture product performs the best among the three AMSR-E soil moisture products in the study area, with a minimum RMSE (root mean square error) of 0.08 (0.10) m3/m3 and smallest absolute error of 0.07 (0.08) m3/m3 at the grassland area with ascending (descending) data. Therefore, the VUA soil moisture product is used to describe the spatial variation of soil moisture during the 2010 growing season over SAYR. The VUA soil moisture product shows that soil moisture presents a declining trend from east south (0.42 m3/m3) to west north (0.23 m3/m3), with good agreement with a general precipitation distribution. The center of SAYR presents extreme wetness (0.60 m3/m3) during the whole study period, especially in July, while the head of SAYR presents a high level soil moisture (0.23 m3/m3) in July, August and September.

Key words: AMSR-E soil moisture products, soil moisture ground measurements, source area of the Yellow River, AMSR-E soil moisture products applicability

Table 1

Maqu network station information (Dente et al., 2012b)"

Station Depth (cm) Elevation (m) Land cover Bulk density (kg/m3) Soil texture Topography
CST_01 5 3,491 Grass NA NA River valley
CST_02 5 3,449 Grass NA NA River valley
CST_03 5 3,508 Grass NA NA Hill valley
CST_04 5 3,505 Grass NA NA Hill valley
CST_05 5 3,542 Grass NA NA Hill valley
NST_01 5 3,431 Grass 0.96 Silt loam River valley
NST_02 5 3,434 Grass 0.81 Silt loam River valley
NST_03 5 3,513 Grass 0.63 Silt loam Hill slope
NST_04 5 3,448 Wetland grass 0.26 Silt loam River valley
NST_05 5 3,476 Grass 0.75 Silt loam Hill slope
NST_06 5 3,428 Grass 0.81 Silt loam River valley
NST_07 5 3,430 Grass 0.58 Silt loam River valley
NST_08 5 3,473 Grass 1.06 Silt loam Valley
NST_09 5 3,434 Grass 0.91 Sandy loam River valley
NST_10 5 3,512 Grass 1.05 Loam-silt loam Hill slope
NST_11 5 3,442 Wetland grass 0.24 Silt loam River valley
NST_12 5 3,441 Grass 1.02 Silt loam River valley
NST_13 5 3,519 Grass 0.67 Silt loam Valley
NST_14 5 3,432 Grass 0.68 Silt loam River valley
NST_15 5 3,752 Grass 0.78 Silt loam Hill slope

Figure 1

Temporal variation of three soil moisture products obtained from ascending overpasses (top) and from descending overpasses (bottom), compared with in situ soil moisture measurements and precipitation in 2010"

Table 2

Statistics of AMSR-E soil moisture and soil moisture of network measurements"

Data JAXA NASA VUA
DC RMSE AE DC RMSE AE DC RMSE AE
A 0.28 0.15 0.13 0.70 0.19 0.16 0.49 0.08 0.07
D 0.63 0.21 0.20 0.72 0.21 0.19 0.52 0.10 0.08

Figure 2

Variation of soil moisture over the SAYR during the period from June to September (the unit of soil moisture is m3/m3)"

Figure 3

The three soil moisture data from AMSR-E versus ground measurements of top layer soil moisture (July, August and September) for ascending passes (top) and for descending passes (bottom)"

Table 3

Statistics of the AMSR-E soil moisture and ground measurements in 2010 (units: m3/m3)"

Data JAXA NASA VUA OBV
MAX MIN AVE MAX MIN AVE MAX MIN AVE MAX MIN AVE
A 0.59 0.04 0.18 0.24 0.11 0.16 0.60 0.21 0.39 0.47 0.08 0.22
D 0.54 0.03 0.11 0.29 0.11 0.13 0.57 0.18 0.34 0.47 0.07 0.22
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