Land-surface parameters estimation from ERS Wind Scatterometer: a case study in China

The ERS-1/2 Wind Scatterometer (WSC) operates at a frequency of 5.3 GHz (C-Band) with vertically like-polarised antennas both in transmission and reception (W-polarization). It continuously provides global measurement of radar cross-section from August 1991 to December 2000. WSC has a resolution cell of about 50 km but provides a high repetition rate (less than four days) and makes measurements at multiple incidence angles. The method presented in this paper combines a theoretical model and an empirical algorithm developed by previous authors to estimate land-surface parameters. The method is implemented using 15 days WSC data in China, a good agreement is observed between retrieved fractional vegetation and NDVI, and the temporal-spatial distribution of soil moisture is reasonable, too.