Novel long-term global indicators of plant productivity from microwave satellites

Research output: Contribution to conferencesPaperContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Wouter Dorigo - , Vienna University of Technology (Author)
  • Leander Mösinger - , Vienna University of Technology (Author)
  • Irene Teubner - , Vienna University of Technology, Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (Author)
  • Tracy Scanlon - , Vienna University of Technology (Author)
  • Robin Van Der Schalie - , VanderSat B.V. (Author)
  • Richard De Jeu - , VanderSat B.V. (Author)
  • Matthias Forkel - , Junior Professorship in Environmental Remote Sensing (Author)

Abstract

Satellite observations from microwave sensors contain information about the vegetation covering the Earth and thus bare large potential to monitor its dynamics at the global scale. Yet, individual satellite missions are too short to allow for a consistent monitoring over long periods. In this study, we present a new series of long-term products of microwave vegetation optical depth (VOD), a model-based indicator that is closely related to the total water contained in the aboveground biomass. The products were created by fusing VOD products from various sensors operating in C-, X-, and Ku-band. The single-sensor level 2 products are combined by a statistical merging approach, which involves spatial and temporal matching and resampling, bias correction, and an optimal merging into homogenized global gridded products with a spatial sampling of 0.25°. Separate products were generated for C-, X-, and Ku- bands to preserve the unique response of each frequency to different vegetation characteristics. The resulting products cover the period 1987- 2018, 1998-2018, and 2002-2018 for the Ku-, X, and C-band respectively. In this study, we provide an overview of the merging methodology, present the product characteristics of the novel products, and evaluate their spatial and temporal characteristics against independent leaf area index observations from optical remote sensing. Moreover, we show how VOD data can be used to provide estimates of gross primary production.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages5500-5503
Number of pages4
Publication statusPublished - 2019
Peer-reviewedYes

Conference

Title39th IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, IGARSS 2019
Duration28 July - 2 August 2019
CityYokohama
CountryJapan

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0003-0363-9697/work/142252078

Keywords

Keywords

  • Biomass, Climate Data Record, GPP, Microwave remote sensing, Radiometer, Vegetation Optical Depth, Vegetation water