Two Disaggregation Algorithms to Estimate Soil Moisture at Moderate (1 km and 300 m) and at High Resolution (60 m): Applications over the North of Africa

The Barcelona Expert Center (BEC) has become an international reference in the generation of high resolution soil moisture (SM) maps using disaggregation algorithms. More than a decade ago, a semi-empirical approach was developed to produce Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) SM at 1 km. This method has been refined over the years to obtain cloud free maps, and modified to further improve the spatial resolution up to 300 m. More recently, a machine-learning approach has been developed to derive European Space Agency (ESA)’s Climate Change Initiative (CCI) SM at 60 m.Thanks to the multi-spectral information added during the disaggregation process, the downscaled SM maps have an overall accuracy similar to the coarse ones, but provide additional information about the SM spatial variability. In this regard, three different applications over the north of Africa are presented here to exemplify the added-value of SM data at high resolution.