Sensitivity of Passive Microwave Observations to Soil Moisture and Vegetation Water Content: L-Band to W-Band

Ground-based multifrequency (L-band to W-band, 1.41-90 GHz) and multiangular (20°-50°) bipolarized (V and H) microwave radiometer observations, acquired over a dense wheat field, are analyzed in order to assess the sensitivity of brightness temperatures (Tb) to land surface properties: surface soil moisture (mv) and vegetation water content (VWC). For each frequency, a combination of microwave Tb observed at either two contrasting incidence angles or two polarizations is used to retrieve mv and VWC, through regressed empirical logarithmic equations. The retrieval performance of the regression is used as an indicator of the sensitivity of the microwave signal to either mv or VWC. In general, L-band measurements are shown to be sensitive to both mv and VWC, with lowest root mean square errors (0.04 m³ ·m^-3 and 0.52 kg ·m^-2 , respectively) obtained at H polarization, 20° and 50° incidence angles. In spite of the dense vegetation, it is shown that mv influences the microwave observations from L-band to K-band (23.8 GHz). The highest sensitivity to soil moisture is observed at L-band in all configurations, while observations at higher frequencies, from C-band (5.05 GHz) to K-band, are only moderately influenced by mv at low incidence angles (e.g., 20°). These frequencies are also shown to be very sensitive to VWC in all the configurations tested. The highest frequencies (Q- and W-bands) are shown to be moderately sensitive to VWC only. These results are used to analyze the response of W-band emissivities derived from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit instruments over northern France.