Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products

During recent decades, various downscaling methods of satellite soil moisture (SM) products, which incorporate geophysical variables such as land surface temperature and vegetation, have been studied for improving their spatial resolution. Most of these studies have used least squares regression mod...

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Main Authors: Daeun Kim, Heewon Moon, Hyunglok Kim, Jungho Im, Minha Choi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2018-01-01
Series:Advances in Meteorology
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/4832423
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author Daeun Kim
Heewon Moon
Hyunglok Kim
Jungho Im
Minha Choi
author_facet Daeun Kim
Heewon Moon
Hyunglok Kim
Jungho Im
Minha Choi
author_sort Daeun Kim
collection DOAJ
description During recent decades, various downscaling methods of satellite soil moisture (SM) products, which incorporate geophysical variables such as land surface temperature and vegetation, have been studied for improving their spatial resolution. Most of these studies have used least squares regression models built from those variables and have demonstrated partial improvement in the downscaled SM. This study introduces a new downscaling method based on support vector regression (SVR) that includes the geophysical variables with locational weighting. Regarding the in situ SM, the SVR downscaling method exhibited a smaller root mean square error, from 0.09 to 0.07 m3·m−3, and a larger average correlation coefficient increased, from 0.62 to 0.68, compared to the conventional method. In addition, the SM downscaled using the SVR method had a greater statistical resemblance to that of the original advanced scatterometer SM. A residual magnitude analysis for each model with two independent variables was performed, which indicated that only the residuals from the SVR model were not well correlated, suggesting a more effective performance than regression models with a significant contribution of independent variables to residual magnitude. The spatial variations of the downscaled SM products were affected by the seasonal patterns in temperature-vegetation relationships, and the SVR downscaling method showed more consistent performance in terms of seasonal effect. Based on these results, the suggested SVR downscaling method is an effective approach to improve the spatial resolution of satellite SM measurements.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1687-9309
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publishDate 2018-01-01
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spelling doaj-art-750efa90c02e412dad00196753a7a8502025-02-03T05:44:46ZengWileyAdvances in Meteorology1687-93091687-93172018-01-01201810.1155/2018/48324234832423Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture ProductsDaeun Kim0Heewon Moon1Hyunglok Kim2Jungho Im3Minha Choi4Center for Built Environment, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of KoreaInstitute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Zürich, SwitzerlandSchool of Earth, Ocean and the Environment, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USASchool of Urban and Environmental Engineering, UNIST, Ulsan, Republic of KoreaGraduate School of Water Resources, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of KoreaDuring recent decades, various downscaling methods of satellite soil moisture (SM) products, which incorporate geophysical variables such as land surface temperature and vegetation, have been studied for improving their spatial resolution. Most of these studies have used least squares regression models built from those variables and have demonstrated partial improvement in the downscaled SM. This study introduces a new downscaling method based on support vector regression (SVR) that includes the geophysical variables with locational weighting. Regarding the in situ SM, the SVR downscaling method exhibited a smaller root mean square error, from 0.09 to 0.07 m3·m−3, and a larger average correlation coefficient increased, from 0.62 to 0.68, compared to the conventional method. In addition, the SM downscaled using the SVR method had a greater statistical resemblance to that of the original advanced scatterometer SM. A residual magnitude analysis for each model with two independent variables was performed, which indicated that only the residuals from the SVR model were not well correlated, suggesting a more effective performance than regression models with a significant contribution of independent variables to residual magnitude. The spatial variations of the downscaled SM products were affected by the seasonal patterns in temperature-vegetation relationships, and the SVR downscaling method showed more consistent performance in terms of seasonal effect. Based on these results, the suggested SVR downscaling method is an effective approach to improve the spatial resolution of satellite SM measurements.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/4832423
spellingShingle Daeun Kim
Heewon Moon
Hyunglok Kim
Jungho Im
Minha Choi
Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products
Advances in Meteorology
title Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products
title_full Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products
title_fullStr Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products
title_full_unstemmed Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products
title_short Intercomparison of Downscaling Techniques for Satellite Soil Moisture Products
title_sort intercomparison of downscaling techniques for satellite soil moisture products
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2018/4832423
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AT junghoim intercomparisonofdownscalingtechniquesforsatellitesoilmoistureproducts
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