DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A MICROWAVE RADIOMETER ALGORITHM FOR LAND SURFACE HYDROLOGY

Abstract

Land surface hydrological conditions have been considered to play an important role in the global and regional climate variability Esspecially, soil moisture, surface temperature and vegetation are the key parameters which should be observed in the global scale. In this paper, an algorithm for these land surface hydrological parameters has been developed by introducing two indices, Soil Wetness Index and Polarization Index which are calculated from a microwave radiative-transfer equation. The algorithm was applied to the air-borne and satellite sensors and validated by using the ground data. The estimated soil moisture, surface temperature and water content of vegetation corresponded reasonably to the observed ones.