Comparison of surface soil moisture from SMOS satellite and ground measurements

Soil moisture datasets at various scales are needed for sustainable land use and water management. The aim of this study was to compare soil moisture ocean salinity satellite and in situ soil moisture data for the Podlasie and Polesie regions in Eastern Poland. Both regions have similar climatic and topographic conditions but are different in land use, vegetation, and soil cover. The test sites were located on agricultural fields on sandy soils and natural vegetation on marshy soils that prevail in the Podlasie and Polesie regions, respectively. The soil moisture ocean salinity soil moisture data were obtained from radiometric measurements (1.4 GHz) and the ground soil moisture from sensors at a depth of 5 cm during the years 2010-2011. In general, temporal patterns of soil moisture from both satellite and ground measurements followed the rainfall trend. The regression coefficients, Bland-Altman analysis, concordance correlation coefficient, and total deviation index showed that the agreement between ground and soil moisture ocean salinity derived soil moisture data is better for the Podlasie than the Polesie region. The lower agreement in Polesie was attributed mostly to the presence of the widespread natural vegetation on the wetter marsh soil along with minor contribution of agriculturally used drier coarse-textured soils.