Classification of the frozen/thawed surface state of Northern land areas based on SMAP and GCOM-W1 brightness temperature observations at 1.4 GHz and 6.9 GHz

ABSTRACT

In this letter, the method created earlier by the authors and the information product SPL3FTP_E of the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite for determining frozen/thawed state of soil surface on the example of test sites placed on North Slope of Alaska, U.S.A., Canada, Finland and Russian Federation were compared. As an indicator of the frozen/thawed state of soil surface, the polarization index calculated on the basis of the reflectivity of soils was proposed. The soil reflectivity was determined in the L-band based on the SMAP radiometric observations at a frequency of 1.4 GHz using the values of brightness temperatures measured by the Global Change Observation Mission – Water 1/Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (GCOM-W1/AMSR2) at a vertical polarization and a frequency of 6.9 GHz, as an estimate of the soil effective temperature. As a result, it was shown that the developed method makes it possible to increase accuracy of the frozen/thawed states determination of soil surface from 3% to 9% in relation to the SMAP data (SPL3FTP_E) for twelve Arctic test sites.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the SB RAS project No. 0287-2021-0034. Weather stations data was acquired and processing with support of Interdisciplianire en Milieu Polaire), Université de Sherbrooke; GRIMP, NSERC and FRQNT;US National Science Foundation [PLR-1304464 and PLR-1417745];0287-2021-0034 [SB RAS];State Research Programs [AAAA-A17-117051850059-6].