Estimation of surface roughness in a semiarid region from C-band ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar data

Sano, E. E.; Huete, A. R.; Moran, M. S.

doi:10.1590/S0100-06831999000400017

Abstracts

In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using the C-band European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to estimate surface soil roughness in a semiarid rangeland. Radar backscattering coefficients were extracted from a dry and a wet season SAR image and were compared with 47 in situ soil roughness measurements obtained in the rocky soils of the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, southeastern Arizona, USA. Both the dry and the wet season SAR data showed exponential relationships with root mean square (RMS) height measurements. The dry C-band ERS-1 SAR data were strongly correlated (R² = 0.80), while the wet season SAR data have somewhat higher secondary variation (R² = 0.59). This lower correlation was probably provoked by the stronger influence of soil moisture, which may not be negligible in the wet season SAR data. We concluded that the single configuration C-band SAR data is useful to estimate surface roughness of rocky soils in a semiarid rangeland.

surface roughness; radar remote sensing; microwave

Neste estudo, analisou-se a relação entre dados de radar de abertura sintética (banda C, satélite ERS-1 - European Remote Sensing Satellite) e medidas de rugosidade do terreno numa região semi-árida do Arizona, EUA. Os coeficientes de retroespalhamento obtidos de imagens das épocas seca e chuvosa foram comparados com 47 medidas de rugosidade do terreno obtidas da Microbacia do Walnut Gulch, localizado no sudeste do estado do Arizona, EUA. Foi observada correlação exponencial entre dados de radar da época seca e medidas de rugosidade (R² = 0,80). Com relação aos dados de radar da época chuvosa, também foi observada correlação exponencial, porém com dispersão maior de pontos (R² = 0,59). Esta correlação mais baixa deveu-se, provavelmente, à maior influência da umidade de solo nos processos de retroespalhamento na banda C, na época chuvosa. Os resultados deste experimento indicaram que dados de radar na banda C são promissores quanto à estimativa de rugosidade de terreno em regiões semi-áridas.

rugosidade do terreno; sensoriamento remoto por radar; microondas

SEÇÃO V - GÊNESE, MORFOLOGIA E CLASSIFICAÇÃO DO SOLO

Estimation of surface roughness in a semiarid region from C-band ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar data(¹ (1 ) Parte da Tese de PhD do primeiro autor, Universidade do Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA. )

Estimativa de rugosidade de solo em regiões semi-áridas por meio dos dados de radar de abertura sintética (banda C, satélite ERS-1)

E. E. Sano^I; A. R. Huete^II; M. S. Moran^III

^IPesquisador da Embrapa, Caixa Postal 515, CEP 73301-970 Planaltina (DF) Brazil. E-mail: sano@cpac.embrapa.br

^IIProfessor da Universidade do Arizona, 429 Shantz Bldg n^o 38, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA

^IIIPesquisadora da USDA-SWRC, 2000 E. Rodovia Allen, Tucson, AZ, 85719, USA

ABSTRACT

In this study, we investigated the feasibility of using the C-band European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-1) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data to estimate surface soil roughness in a semiarid rangeland. Radar backscattering coefficients were extracted from a dry and a wet season SAR image and were compared with 47 in situ soil roughness measurements obtained in the rocky soils of the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, southeastern Arizona, USA. Both the dry and the wet season SAR data showed exponential relationships with root mean square (RMS) height measurements. The dry C-band ERS-1 SAR data were strongly correlated (R² = 0.80), while the wet season SAR data have somewhat higher secondary variation (R² = 0.59). This lower correlation was probably provoked by the stronger influence of soil moisture, which may not be negligible in the wet season SAR data. We concluded that the single configuration C-band SAR data is useful to estimate surface roughness of rocky soils in a semiarid rangeland.

Index terms: surface roughness, radar remote sensing, microwave.

RESUMO

Neste estudo, analisou-se a relação entre dados de radar de abertura sintética (banda C, satélite ERS-1 - European Remote Sensing Satellite) e medidas de rugosidade do terreno numa região semi-árida do Arizona, EUA. Os coeficientes de retroespalhamento obtidos de imagens das épocas seca e chuvosa foram comparados com 47 medidas de rugosidade do terreno obtidas da Microbacia do Walnut Gulch, localizado no sudeste do estado do Arizona, EUA. Foi observada correlação exponencial entre dados de radar da época seca e medidas de rugosidade (R² = 0,80). Com relação aos dados de radar da época chuvosa, também foi observada correlação exponencial, porém com dispersão maior de pontos (R² = 0,59). Esta correlação mais baixa deveu-se, provavelmente, à maior influência da umidade de solo nos processos de retroespalhamento na banda C, na época chuvosa. Os resultados deste experimento indicaram que dados de radar na banda C são promissores quanto à estimativa de rugosidade de terreno em regiões semi-áridas.

Termos de indexação: rugosidade do terreno, sensoriamento remoto por radar, microondas.

Texto completo disponível apenas em PDF.

Full text available only in PDF format.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Special thanks are due to Dr. D. Goodrich for providing the orthophotos of the watershed, and R. Simanton for allowing the use of the roughness meter. The assistance of personnel at the ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed facility in Tombstone, AZ, was also very important. This work was partially supported by the NASA-EOS Interdisciplinary Research Program in Earth Sciences (NASA IDP-88-086), National Science Foundation grant (INT-9314872), and NASA Landsat Team grant (# -41396-F).

LITERATURE CITED

ALTESE, E.; BOLOGNANI, O.; MANCINI, M. & TROCH, P.A. Retrieving soil moisture over bare soil from ERS 1 synthetic aperture radar data: sensitivity analysis based on a theoretical surface scattering model and field data. Water R. Res., 32:653-661, 1996.
AUTRET, M.; BERNARD, R. & VIDAL-MADJAR, D. Theoretical study of the sensitivity of the microwave backscattering coefficient to the soil surface parameters. Int. J. Remote Sens., 10:171-179, 1989.
BEAUDOIN, A.; DESHAYES, M.; PIET, L.; STUSSI, N. & Le TOAN, T. Retrieval and analysis of temperate forest backscatter signatures from multitemporal ERS-1 data over hilly terrain. In: SYMPOSIUM OF ERS-1 PILOT PROJECT, 1., Toledo, 1994. Proceedings. Toledo, European Space Agency, 1994. p.283-289.
BENALLEGUE, M.; TACONET, O.; VIDAL-MADJAR, D. & NORMAND, M. The use of radar backscattering signals for measuring soil moisture and surface roughness. Remote Sens. Environ., 53:61-68, 1995.
BRECKENFELD, D.H. Soil survey of Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, Soil Conservation Service, USDA, 1993. 130p.
BRUNIQUEL, J. Contributions de données multi-temporelles a l'amelioration radiometriques et a l'utilisation d'images de radar a synthese d'ouverture. Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, 1996. (Tese de Doutorado)
DUBOIS, P.C.; van ZYL, J. & ENGMAN, T. Measuring soil moisture with imaging radars. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 33:915-926, 1995.
GELDERMAN, F.W. Soil survey of Walnut Gulch experimental watershed, Arizona, report, Soil Conserv. Serv. Agric. Res. Serv., USDA, 1970.
KUSTAS, W.P.; GOODRICH, D.C.; MORAN, M.S.; AMER, S.A.; BACH, L.B.; BLANFORD, J.H.; CHEHBOUNI, A.; CLAASSEN, H.; CLEMENTS, W.E.; DORAISWAMY, P.C.; DUBOIS, P.; CLARKE, T.R.; DAUGHTRY, C.S.T.; GELLMAN, D.I.; GRANT, T.A.; HIPPS, L.E.; HUETE, A.R.; HUMES, K.S.; JACKSON, T.J.; KEEFER, T.O.; NICHOLS, W.D.; PARRY, R.; PERRY, E.M.; PINKER, R.T.; PINTER Jr., P.J.; QI, J.; RIGGS, A.C.; SCHUMGGE, T.J.; SHUTKO, A.M.; STANNARD, D.I.; SWIATEK, E.; van LEEUWEN, J.D.; van ZYL, J.; VIDAL, A.; WASHBURNE, J. & WELTZ, M.A. An interdisciplinary field study of the energy and water fluxes in the atmosphere-biosphere system over semiarid rangelands: description and some preliminary results. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 72:1683-1698, 1991.
KUSTAS, W.P. & GOODRICH, D.C. Preface. Water R. Res., 30:1211-1225, 1994.
LAUR, H. Derivation of backscattering coefficients σ^o ERS-1 SAR. Neville, France, PRI Products, European Space Agency Publication, 1992.
MO, T.; WANG, J.R. & SCHMUGGE, T.J. Estimation of surface roughness parameters from dual-frequency measurements of radar backscattering coefficients. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 26:575-580, 1988.
MOORE, I.D. & LARSON, C.L. Estimating micro-relief surface storage from point data. Trans. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng., 5:1073-1077, 1979.
MORAN, M.S.; CLARKE, T.R.; KUSTAS, W.P.; WELTZ, M. & AMER, S.A. Evaluation of hydrologic parameters in a semiarid rangeland using remotely sensed spectral data. Water R. Res., 30:1287-1297, 1994.
MORAN, M.S., RAHMAN, A.F.; WASHBURNE, J.C.; GOODRICH, D.C.; WELTZ, M.A. & KUSTAS, W.P. Combining the Penman-Monteith equation with measurements of surface temperature and reflectance to estimate evaporation rates of semiarid grassland. Agr. For. Meteor., 80:87-109, 1996.
RAO, R.G.S. & ULABY, F.T. Optimal sampling techniques for ground truth data in microwave remote sensing of soil moisture. Remote Sens. Environ., 6:289-301, 1977.
RAO, K.J.; RAJU, S. & WANG, J.R. Estimation of soil moisture and surface roughness parameters from backscattering coefficient. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 31:1094-1099, 1993.
ROBICHAUD, P.R. & MOLNAU, M. Measuring soil roughness changes with an ultrasonic profiler. Trans. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng., 33:1851-1858, 1990.
SIMANTON, J.R.; DIXON, R.M. & McGOWAN, I. A microroughness meter for evaluating rainwater infiltration. In: HYDROLOGY AND WATER RESOURCES IN ARIZONA AND THE SOUTHWEST, 8., Flagstaff, AZ, April 14-15. Proceedings. Flagstaff, 1978. p.171-174.
ULABY, F.T.; BATLIVALA, P.P. & DOBSON, M.C. Microwave backscatter dependence on surface roughness, soil moisture, and soil texture. Part I - bare soil. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Electronics, 16:286-295, 1978.

(1

) Parte da Tese de PhD do primeiro autor, Universidade do Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
06 Oct 2014
Date of issue
Dec 1999

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

[1] ALTESE, E.; BOLOGNANI, O.; MANCINI, M. & TROCH, P.A. Retrieving soil moisture over bare soil from ERS 1 synthetic aperture radar data: sensitivity analysis based on a theoretical surface scattering model and field data. Water R. Res., 32:653-661, 1996.

[2] AUTRET, M.; BERNARD, R. & VIDAL-MADJAR, D. Theoretical study of the sensitivity of the microwave backscattering coefficient to the soil surface parameters. Int. J. Remote Sens., 10:171-179, 1989.

[3] BEAUDOIN, A.; DESHAYES, M.; PIET, L.; STUSSI, N. & Le TOAN, T. Retrieval and analysis of temperate forest backscatter signatures from multitemporal ERS-1 data over hilly terrain. In: SYMPOSIUM OF ERS-1 PILOT PROJECT, 1., Toledo, 1994. Proceedings. Toledo, European Space Agency, 1994. p.283-289.

[4] BENALLEGUE, M.; TACONET, O.; VIDAL-MADJAR, D. & NORMAND, M. The use of radar backscattering signals for measuring soil moisture and surface roughness. Remote Sens. Environ., 53:61-68, 1995.

[5] BRECKENFELD, D.H. Soil survey of Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, Arizona, Soil Conservation Service, USDA, 1993. 130p.

[6] BRUNIQUEL, J. Contributions de données multi-temporelles a l'amelioration radiometriques et a l'utilisation d'images de radar a synthese d'ouverture. Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, 1996. (Tese de Doutorado)

[7] DUBOIS, P.C.; van ZYL, J. & ENGMAN, T. Measuring soil moisture with imaging radars. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 33:915-926, 1995.

[8] GELDERMAN, F.W. Soil survey of Walnut Gulch experimental watershed, Arizona, report, Soil Conserv. Serv. Agric. Res. Serv., USDA, 1970.

[9] KUSTAS, W.P.; GOODRICH, D.C.; MORAN, M.S.; AMER, S.A.; BACH, L.B.; BLANFORD, J.H.; CHEHBOUNI, A.; CLAASSEN, H.; CLEMENTS, W.E.; DORAISWAMY, P.C.; DUBOIS, P.; CLARKE, T.R.; DAUGHTRY, C.S.T.; GELLMAN, D.I.; GRANT, T.A.; HIPPS, L.E.; HUETE, A.R.; HUMES, K.S.; JACKSON, T.J.; KEEFER, T.O.; NICHOLS, W.D.; PARRY, R.; PERRY, E.M.; PINKER, R.T.; PINTER Jr., P.J.; QI, J.; RIGGS, A.C.; SCHUMGGE, T.J.; SHUTKO, A.M.; STANNARD, D.I.; SWIATEK, E.; van LEEUWEN, J.D.; van ZYL, J.; VIDAL, A.; WASHBURNE, J. & WELTZ, M.A. An interdisciplinary field study of the energy and water fluxes in the atmosphere-biosphere system over semiarid rangelands: description and some preliminary results. Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc. 72:1683-1698, 1991.

[10] KUSTAS, W.P. & GOODRICH, D.C. Preface. Water R. Res., 30:1211-1225, 1994.

[11] LAUR, H. Derivation of backscattering coefficients σ^o ERS-1 SAR. Neville, France, PRI Products, European Space Agency Publication, 1992.

[12] MO, T.; WANG, J.R. & SCHMUGGE, T.J. Estimation of surface roughness parameters from dual-frequency measurements of radar backscattering coefficients. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 26:575-580, 1988.

[13] MOORE, I.D. & LARSON, C.L. Estimating micro-relief surface storage from point data. Trans. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng., 5:1073-1077, 1979.

[14] MORAN, M.S.; CLARKE, T.R.; KUSTAS, W.P.; WELTZ, M. & AMER, S.A. Evaluation of hydrologic parameters in a semiarid rangeland using remotely sensed spectral data. Water R. Res., 30:1287-1297, 1994.

[15] MORAN, M.S., RAHMAN, A.F.; WASHBURNE, J.C.; GOODRICH, D.C.; WELTZ, M.A. & KUSTAS, W.P. Combining the Penman-Monteith equation with measurements of surface temperature and reflectance to estimate evaporation rates of semiarid grassland. Agr. For. Meteor., 80:87-109, 1996.

[16] RAO, R.G.S. & ULABY, F.T. Optimal sampling techniques for ground truth data in microwave remote sensing of soil moisture. Remote Sens. Environ., 6:289-301, 1977.

[17] RAO, K.J.; RAJU, S. & WANG, J.R. Estimation of soil moisture and surface roughness parameters from backscattering coefficient. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 31:1094-1099, 1993.

[18] ROBICHAUD, P.R. & MOLNAU, M. Measuring soil roughness changes with an ultrasonic profiler. Trans. Am. Soc. Agric. Eng., 33:1851-1858, 1990.

[19] SIMANTON, J.R.; DIXON, R.M. & McGOWAN, I. A microroughness meter for evaluating rainwater infiltration. In: HYDROLOGY AND WATER RESOURCES IN ARIZONA AND THE SOUTHWEST, 8., Flagstaff, AZ, April 14-15. Proceedings. Flagstaff, 1978. p.171-174.

[20] ULABY, F.T.; BATLIVALA, P.P. & DOBSON, M.C. Microwave backscatter dependence on surface roughness, soil moisture, and soil texture. Part I - bare soil. IEEE Trans. Geosci. Electronics, 16:286-295, 1978.

Brasil

Brasil

Estimation of surface roughness in a semiarid region from C-band ERS-1 synthetic aperture radar data

Estimativa de rugosidade de solo em regiões semi-áridas por meio dos dados de radar de abertura sintética (banda C, satélite ERS-1)

Abstracts

Publication Dates