An appraisal of the accuracy of operational soil moisture estimates from SMOS MIRAS using validated in situ observations acquired in a Mediterranean environment

Acquiring information on the spatio-temporal variability of soil moisture is of key importance in extending our capability to understand the Earth system's physical processes, and is also required in many practical applications. Earth observation (EO) provides a promising avenue to observe the distribution of soil moisture at different observational scales, with a number of products distributed at present operationally. Validation of such products at a range of climate and environmental conditions across continents is a fundamental step related to their practical use. Various in situ soil moisture ground observational networks have been established globally providing suitable data for evaluating the accuracy of EO-based soil moisture products. This study aimed at evaluating the accuracy of soil moisture estimates provided from the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity Mission (SMOS) global operational product at test sites from the REMEDHUS International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN) in Spain. For this purpose, validated observations from in situ ground observations acquired nearly concurrent to SMOS overpass were utilized. Overall, results showed a generally reasonable agreement between the SMOS product and the in situ soil moisture measurements in the 0-5 cm soil moisture layer (root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.116 m(3) m(-3)). An improvement in product accuracy for the overall comparison was shown when days of high radio frequency interference were filtered out (RMSE = 0.110 m(3) m(-3)). Seasonal analysis showed highest agreement during autumn, followed by summer, winter, and spring seasons. A systematic soil moisture underestimation was also found for the overall comparison and during the four seasons. Overall, the result provides supportive evidence of the potential value of this operational product for meso-scale studies and practical applications.