High resolution soil moisture applications

Satellite(s) Multiple (SMAP, AMSR-E, Sentinel-2).	Monitoring element Passive/active microwave backscatter.

Satellite(s)

Multiple (SMAP, AMSR-E, Sentinel-2).

Monitoring element

Passive/active microwave backscatter.

Description technique

Vandersat high resolution soil moisture datasets use a combination of active and passive radar microwaves.

Accuracy / Resolution

100m.

Case study

Mainly used as near real time product by farmers throughout the world (e.g. for drought insurance products) or by water authorities.

Possible testing is underway by GNS Science in Northland.

Also fits domain

Freshwater, Land.

Benefits

Daily, high spatial resolution.
Dynamic vegetation information included.

Limitations

Not free. Price depends on area size. Likely price range for 5-year period of historical data for Northland Region ~ 30-50kNZ$ (estimate May 2021)

Applicability for Northland

Yes, it could be used for drought studies, initially to get coverage of whole region of historic data. If validated, near-real time delivery is feasible.

Publication references

https://docs.vandersat.com/index.html#

Other comments or information

Other products available, such as land surface temperature and biomass for farmers:

https://vandersat.com/blog/basf-digital-farming-and-vandersat-are-the-first-globally-to-offer-access-to-scalable-daily-biomass-images-unimpeded-by-cloud-cover/

Other references

Albergel, C., Rüdiger, C., Pellarin, T., Calvet, J.-C., Fritz, N., Froissard, F., Suquia, D., Petitpa, A., Piguet, B., Martin, E. 2008. From near-surface to root-zone soil moisture using an exponential filter: an assessment of the method based on in-situ observations and model simulations. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 12: 1323-1337.

https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/12/1323/2008/

Paulik, C., Dorigo, W., Wagner, W., & Kidd, R. 2014. Validation of the ASCAT Soil Water Index using in situ data from the International Soil Moisture Network. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 30, 1-8

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0303243414000099

Wagner, W., Lemoine, G., Rott. H. 1999a. A Method for Estimating Soil Moisture from ERS Scatterometer and Soil Data. Remote Sensing of Environment 70 (2). Elsevier: 191–207.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003442579900036X