Validation and Comparison of LPRM Retrieved Soil Moisture Using AMSR2 Brightness Temperature at Two Spatial Resolutions in the Indian Region

The Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) on board the Global Change Observation Mission-Water 1 launched in May 2012 provides brightness temperature at two different spatial resolutions globally with an average temporal resolution of two days. Surface soil moisture is retrieved using land parameter retrieval model (LPRM) and level-3 brightness temperature data (10.65- and 36.5-GHz channels). The present LPRM implementation has AMSR2 brightness temperatures only with dielectric and vegetation parameters derived from 10.65- and 36.5-GHz channels, respectively. Retrieved soil moisture in the Indian region for 0.25° and 0.1° grid cells is validated and compared over several sites with
in situ
measurements. It is observed that in comparing the LPRM retrieved soil moisture with field measurements over various sites, 0.1° grid performed relatively better over 0.25° grid.