HR: 1340h
AN: H13D-0463    [Abstracts]
TI: The effect of vegetation optical depth on temporal variation of soil moisture
AU: * Jahan, N
EM: nasim@ce.ccny.cuny.edu
AF: City College of the City University of New York, 138th Street & Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031
AU: Lakhankar, T
EM: tarendra@ce.ccny.cuny.edu
AF: City College of the City University of New York, 138th Street & Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031
AU: Ghedira, H
EM: ghedira@ce.ccny.cuny.edu
AF: City College of the City University of New York, 138th Street & Convent Ave, New York, NY 10031
AB: Various remote sensing techniques have been evaluated and proven to be a valuable source of information for different hydrological applications. With the actual Earth observation satellites, we can observe the entire river basin rather than sparse points and provide unique information about properties of the surface or shallow layers of the earth. The actual remote sensing sensors offer the potential of measuring new hydrologic variables particularly valuable for flood forecasting and hydrological modeling. Soil moisture is one of those parameters, which plays a central role in a wide variety of hydrological system processes. Soil moisture is an important component of the hydrological cycle. The capability to observe soil moisture frequently and over large regions could significantly improve our ability to estimate some hydrological parameters such as infiltration, runoff, and soil wetness. The primary intent of this project was to map the spatial variability of soil moisture and to assess the effect of the vegetation optical depth on this variability. The outcome of this project will be used to better understand the effect of the vegetation optical depth on soil moisture variation. A rigorous assessment of this effect will help us to reduce the negative role of the vegetation on classification accuracy. The study area is located in Oklahoma (97d35'W, 36d15'N). The soil moisture data were collected over a 10,000 km2 using ESTAR Instrument (Electronically Scanned Thinned Array Radiometer) during the SGP97 campaign (operated by NASA). The SFP97 was a large, interdisciplinary experiment carried out over a month period in 1997. The derived soil moisture from different dates, with 800 m resolution, was analyzed and regrouped in different classes. The preliminary results showed that the vegetation optical depth has no significant effect on the temporal variation of soil moisture. This may partly be explained by the fact that the brightness temperature measured by ESTAR is more affected by the soil moisture than the vegetation wetness.
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 1833 Hydroclimatology
DE: 1854 Precipitation (3354)
DE: 1866 Soil moisture
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting