SMOS-NEXT: A New Concept for Soil Moisture Retrieval from Passive Interferometric Observations

Y. Soldo; F. Cabot; B. Rougé; Y. H. Kerr; A. Al Bitar; E. Epaillard

doi:10.1051/eas/1359011

All issues

Volume 59 (2013)

EAS Publications Series, 59 (2013) 203-212

Abstract

Issue		EAS Publications Series Volume 59, 2013 New Concepts in Imaging: Optical and Statistical Models


Page(s)		203 - 212
Section		Physical Models and Data Processing
DOI		https://doi.org/10.1051/eas/1359011
Published online		13 March 2013

New Concepts in Imaging: Optical and Statistical Models
D. Mary, C. Theys and C. Aime (eds)
EAS Publications Series, 59 (2013) 203-212

SMOS-NEXT: A New Concept for Soil Moisture Retrieval from Passive Interferometric Observations

Y. Soldo¹^,2, F. Cabot¹^,2, B. Rougé², Y. H. Kerr¹^,2, A. Al Bitar¹ and E. Epaillard¹

¹ Centre d’Études Spatiales de la Biosphère (CESBIO), 18 avenue Edouard Belin, bpi 2801, 31401 Toulouse Cedex 9, France
e-mail: yan.soldo@cesbio.cnes.fr
² Centre National d’Études Spatiales (CNES), 18 avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse Cedex 9, France

Abstract

Present soil moisture and ocean salinity maps retrieved by remote sensing are characterized by a coarse spatial resolution. Hydrological, meteorological and climatological applications would benefit greatly from a better spatial resolution. Owing to the dimensions of the satellite structure and to the degradation of the instrument’s radiometric sensitivity, such improvement cannot be achieved with classical interferometry. Then, in order to achieve this goal an original concept for passive interferometric measurements is described. This concept should allow to achieve a much finer spatial resolution, which can be further improved with the application of disaggregation methods. The results will then allow the integration of global soil moisture maps into hydrological models, a better management of water resources at small scales and an improvement in spatial precision for various applications.