Investigation of the Ability of a Passive Microwave Sensor to Monitor Surface Water Over Complex Landscape in Eastern Siberia

Understanding spatiotemporal distribution of terrestrial water in Arctic region is essential to diagnose/predict the impact of climate change at the region. Among the components of the total terrestrial water, surface water is important in the aspect of ecology and human living. To observe the broad region with good observation frequency, this research investigates ability of passive microwave satellite data to extract surface water fraction (SWF), with the help of optical data. In spite of the complex landscape with boreal forest, snow/ice, river and wetland, a polarization difference index derived from AMSR2 could track SWF, although it has a detection limit in open-water size and it is likely to be affected by snow and/or frozen soil in the winter and thaw season. Combination with other water indices derived from microwave data may also contribute to accurate estimation of SWF.