Evaporation-based disaggregation of surface soil moisture data: The dispatch method, the CATDS product and on-going research

The soil evaporation is under atmospheric conditions non-limited in energy-strongly linked to the near-surface soil moisture sensed by microwave radiometers. This has been the rationale for developing the DisPATCh (Disaggregation based on Physical And Theoretical scale Change) method, which relies on thermal-derived evaporation to improve the spatial resolution of SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) like data. In practice, the disaggregation scheme estimates the 0–5 cm soil moisture at 1 km resolution by combining 40 km SMOS soil moisture, 1 km resolution MODIS (MODerate resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) data, and a multi-scale soil evaporation model. This paper provides an overview of 1) the current status and main assumptions of DisPATCh, 2) the DisPATCh-based processor implemented in the Centre Aval de Traitement des Donnees SMOS (CATDS), and 3) related ongoing research including advanced modeling of soil evaporation and the prospect of coupling thermal- and radar-based soil moisture downscaling approaches.