Validation of AMSR-E Soil Moisture Retrievals over Huaihe River Basin, in China

The two soil moisture retrieval methods based on the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer of the Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) data, the standard algorithm by NASA and Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) have been validated at Xuchang site in Huaihe River basin, in China. The NASA dataset fails to capture main fluctuations of soil moisture, while the LPRM exhibits stronger agreement with the temporal dynamics and precipitation events associated with in situ soil moisture. The LPRM X-band product over ascending pass performs best with correlation coefficient value of 0.42, root mean square error ranging from 0.18 and mean absolute error of 0.14. Generally, the useful soil moisture information can be extracted over HRB from AMSR-E passive microwave data.