Microwave Remote Sensing of the Earth’s Surface

By the end of this course, students will be able to work with, and perform research based on real or synthetic data from current and imminent microwave missions (e.g. Sentinel-1, ROSE-L, CIMR, Harmony, Metop ASCAT/SG-SCA) to study processes relevant in land, ocean and cryosphere applications, in particular processes related to surface-atmosphere interactions.

Microwave dielectric properties of natural materials

• Microwave remote sensing of soil and vegetation.

• The relation between surface soil moisture, root zone soil moisture and vegetation water content variations and their role in land-atmosphere exchanges of water, energy and carbon. Modelling the influence of dielectric properties and geometry on emission and scattering from vegetated surfaces.

• Soil moisture estimation from passive and active microwave remote sensing.

• Monitoring biomass and vegetation water status using passive and active microwave remote sensing.

• Land-atmosphere interactions over ice/snow

• The relation between physical snow/firn/ice properties and land/atmosphere interactions for ice

• The relation between snow/firn/ice properties and the EM properties in the MW region

• Radiative transfer models to translate snow/firn/ice properties into remote sensing signals for both passive/active MW RS sensors

• Retrieval of snow/firn/ice properties from MW RS data

Ocean

• The relation between wind, marine boundary layer conditions, and directional surface wave spectra.

• Theoretical models relating wave-spectra and the resulting directional roughness to the radar scattering intensities and microwave emissivity.

• Empirical Geophysical Model Functions (GMF) relating surface winds and/or wind stress to radar scattering and Doppler

• Retrieval of surface wind and surface wave information using data from radar-scatter meters, Synthetic Aperture Radars, and microwave radiometers.