Cryosphere and Hydrology
Multiple global water cycle related satellite data products (soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, landscape freeze/thaw, snow water equivalent, ocean salinity, precipitation etc.) are available and explored by a growing community. However, very significant discrepancies among these different satellite products have been reported. The space observation of the Cryosphere needs new instruments and tools, while the global mapping of soil moisture and ocean salinity needs to be continued. In addition, the temporal-spatial resolution and accuracy of different satellite data, including the ESA Soil Moisture Ocean Salinity (SMOS, single L-band and multiple incidence angles) and the Chinese Fengyun series satellites (multi-frequency at a single incidence angle), needs to be refined for a wider global water cycle study.This project is dedicated to improving the accuracy and temporal-spatial resolution of current remote sensing products related to water cycle, including soil moisture, vegetation optical depth, landscape freeze/thaw, snow wetness and water equivalent etc., through the synergy use of multi-sources satellite observations from European and Chinese Earth observation data. It is aimed to enhance the retrieval performance through the development of radiative transfer modelling and new algorithms. Meanwhile, new satellite missions should be studied to combine the advantages of current satellite design, and continue the multi-frequency microwave observation from space.This work is under the funding grant of CNES TOSCA ÔÇ£SMOS-HRÔÇØ and CNSA ÔÇ£Terrestrial Water Resources MissionÔÇØ.
