Validation of the enhanced resolution ERS-2 scatterometer soil moisture product

Quality assessment methods are introduced through the production of the enhanced resolution soil moisture product. Derived model parameters for the retrieval of soil moisture estimates from ASPS ERS-2 backscatter data as well as the resulting soil moisture product itself, are evaluated by validation analysis. Statistical measure and visual comparison confirm the demand on high data quality of the model parameters. The enhanced resolution soil moisture product is validated against 181 in-situ stations. Correlations with in-situ data show the excellent performance of the product.