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S. Hasenauer, A. Jann, B. Zeiner:
"Near-real time ASCAT soil moisture data for hydrological applications in Europe";
Poster: EGU 2009, Vienna; 2009-04-19 - 2009-04-24; in: "Geophysical Research Abstracts", 11 (2009), Paper ID EGU2009-5812, 1 pages.

Soil moisture is a highly variable climate parameter, which is observed at scales ranging from local to regional
and which is assessed from a variety of sensors. The retrieval methods differ mainly in geographical resolution,
coverage and sensor system, with scatterometer and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems being well-suited
for hydrological applications.
In order to serve the needs of the hydrology community, the Satellite Application Facility on Support to
Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H-SAF) has the aim to produce new satellite derived soil
moisture products (amongst a range of other products for precipitation and snow) on an operational level for
European hydrological users.
This work introduces the product generation and product characteristics of the value-added surface soil
moisture products, derived from the Advanced Scatterometer Instrument (ASCAT) on-board the METOP satellite.
At the end of the development phase, users of H-SAF will benefit from an operational, near-real time surface soil
moisture product with 1 km resolution over Europe, derived from the 25 km ASCAT product. It is developed by
TU Wien following a statistical disaggregation approach, where the strong relationship between the mean soil
moisture content of a small-scale local area (derived from ENVISAT ASAR data) and its regional-scale mean
(derived from METOP ASCAT data) is used. The product is foreseen to be generated operationally at the Austrian
Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) in Vienna.

http://publik.tuwien.ac.at/files/PubDat_175593.pdf