Utilization of Remote Sensing Data in the Simulation of the Water and Heat Regime of Land Areas: A Review of Publications

Abstract

The article presents a revue of the estimates of soil surface moisture, soil water content, and evapotranspiration as elements of water and heat regimes of land surface areas at various spatial scales, made with the use of remote sensing data for Earth in various spectral ranges. In most cases considered in the study, such estimates were obtained with the use of land surface models. A special section is focused on the results of estimating soil surface moisture and water content using satellite data from microwave range, including radar data. Estimates of soil surface moisture content obtained with the use of neural networks are presented. A brief description is given to international hydrological–atmosphere experiments carried out under world research projects aimed to obtain data on the processes of moisture and heat exchange between the land surface and the surface atmosphere layer. Land surface, satellite, and model databases that have been formed using the results of studies in the field under consideration since the mid-1980s are reviewed. Prospects of further studies based on the development of new multispectral instrumentation, the creation of new databases, and the use of a new generation of satellites—global-coverage microsatellites with high-resolution sensors are presented.