Accessibility navigation


Widespread occurrence of anomalous C-band backscatter signals in arid environments caused by subsurface scattering

Wagner, W., Lindorfer, R., Melzer, T., Hahn, S., Bauer-Marschallinger, B., Morrison, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8075-0316, Calvet, J.-C., Hobbs, S., Quast, R., Greimeister-Pfeil, I. and Vreugdenhil, M. (2022) Widespread occurrence of anomalous C-band backscatter signals in arid environments caused by subsurface scattering. Remote Sensing of Environment, 276. 113025. ISSN 0034-4257

[img]
Preview
Text (Open Access) - Published Version
· Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
· Please see our End User Agreement before downloading.

5MB

It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from this work. See Guidance on citing.

To link to this item DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2022.113025

Abstract/Summary

Backscatter measured by scatterometers and Synthetic Aperture Radars is sensitive to the dielectric properties of the soil and normally increases with increasing soil moisture content. However, when the soil is dry, the radar waves penetrate deeper into the soil, potentially sensing subsurface scatterers such as near-surface rocks and stones. In this paper we propose an exponential model to describe the impact of such subsurface scatterers on CBand backscatter measurements acquired by the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) on board of the METOP satellites. The model predicts an increase of the subsurface scattering contributions with decreasing soil wetness that may counteract the signal from the soil surface. This may cause anomalous backscatter signals that deteriorate soil moisture retrievals from ASCAT. We test whether this new model is able to explain ASCAT observations better than a bare soil backscatter model without a subsurface scattering term, using k-fold cross validation and the Bayesian Information Criterion for model selection. We find that arid landscapes with Leptosols and Arenosols represent ideal environmental conditions for the occurrence of subsurface scattering. Nonetheless, subsurface scattering may also become important in more humid environments during dry spells. We conclude that subsurface scattering is a widespread phenomenon that (i) needs to be accounted for in active microwave soil moisture retrievals and (ii) has a potential for soil mapping, particularly in arid and semi-arid environments.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:105203
Uncontrolled Keywords:ASCAT Radar backscatter Scattering Deserts Arid environments
Publisher:Elsevier

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Page navigation