Integrating decades of research conducted by leading scientists in the field, Remote Sensing of Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture Content provides an overview of state-of-the-art methods and modeling techniques employed for deriving spatio-temporal estimates of energy fluxes and soil surface moisture from remote sensing. It also underscores the range

Information dealing with hydrologic cycle, precipitation, snow hydrology, evapotranspiration, runoff, soil moisture, groundwater, water quality, and water resources management and monitoring

Sealing up in Hydrology using Remote Sensing Edited by J. B. Stewart Institute of Hydrology, UK E. T. Engman NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA R. A. Feddes Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands Y. Kerr Centre d’Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphere, France The most pressing modern environmental problems are considered to affect the entire globe. For example, climate change, deforestation and desertification are all happening on such a large scale that they may affect the sustainability of man’s future. What is needed to address this question quantitatively are more reliable data on large scale land use and land-use change, and their impacts on water resources and climate. The catch is that we are never going to be able to measure directly key hydrological and meteorological variables at enough points on the ground to give adequate description of the large areas (regions and continents) for which information is required. The only way to get this is via large scale modelling and the development of remote sensing techniques. This book brings together the presentations made at a recent workshop by experts, who met to consider the problems of scaling up from local to global spatial scales and from the instantaneous satellite measurements to daily or longer time scales. The authors’ collective views represent the state of the art of their science as seen by an active international remote sensing community, and ground and planetary-based measurement scientists and modellers. The front cover illustration is reproduced courtesy of N. Fey

This book is the most comprehensive documentation of the scientific and methodological advances that have taken place in understanding remote sensing data, methods, and applications over last 50 years. In a very practical way it demonstrates the experience, utility, methods and models used in studying a wide array of water applications. There are more than 100 leading global experts in the field contributing to this work.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a critical component of the water and energy balances, and the number of remote sensing-based ET products and estimation methods has increased in recent years. Various aspects of remote sensing of ET are reported in the 11 papers published in this book. The major research areas covered by this book include inter-comparison and performance evaluation of widely used one- and two-source energy balance models, a new dual-source model (Soil Plant Atmosphere and Remote Sensing Evapotranspiration, SPARSE), and a process-based model (ETMonitor); assessment of multi-source (e.g., remote sensing, reanalysis, and land surface model) ET products; development or improvement of data fusion frameworks to predict continuous daily ET at a high spatial resolution (field-scale or 30 m) by fusing the advanced spaceborne thermal emission reflectance radiometer (ASTER), the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Landsat data; and investigating uncertainties in ET estimates using an ET ensemble composed of several land surface models and diagnostic datasets. The effects of the differences between ET products on water resources and ecosystem management were also investigated. More accurate ET estimates and improved understanding of remotely sensed ET products are crucial for maximizing crop productivity while minimizing water losses and management costs.

This book provides a comprehensive and advanced overview of the basic theory of thermal remote sensing and its application in hydrology, agriculture, and forestry. Specifically, the book highlights the main theory, assumptions, advantages, drawbacks, and perspectives of these methods for the retrieval and validation of surface temperature/emissivity and evapotranspiration from thermal infrared remote sensing. It will be an especially valuable resource for students, researchers, experts, and decision-makers whose interest focuses on the retrieval and validation of surface temperature/emissivity, the estimation and validation of evapotranspiration at satellite pixel scale, and the application of thermal remote sensing. Both Prof. Huajun Tang and Prof. Zhao-Liang Li work at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), China.