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Completed TRL 6 (started at 2, targeting 6)
This project is focused on maturing a mission concept for a satellite-based synthetic aperture radar mission (“VOD SAR”) to enable improved evapotranspiration (ET) modeling. We plan to improve the mission concept and cost estimate for a satellite mission optimized to retrieve daily, 1 km resolution Vegetation Optical Depth (VOD) and Vegetation Water Content (VWC) to constrain modeling of evapotranspiration.
The VOD SAR conceptual mission would provide data products that would be directly relevant to the leading edge of modeling transpiration. VWC, derived from VOD, is an indicator of the quantity of plant water available for transpiration. Transpiration, along with bare soil evaporation and leaf intercept evaporation constitutes evapotranspiration (ET), which cannot be measured directly and remains one of the most uncertain and most difficult to quantify components of the hydrological cycle (Dolman et al., 2014). Recognizing this and the important role that evapotranspiration plays in climate modeling, the 2017 “Thriving on Our Changing Planet: A Decadal Strategy for Earth Observation from Space” (2017 Earth Science Decadal Survey) lists ET in the Most Important category of knowledge needed in the Global Hydrological Cycles and Water Resources section. The closely related subject of surface energy balance is also listed in the “Decadal Survey” in the most important or very important category of the Climate Variability and Change section.
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