Validation of remotely-sensed soil moisture in the absence of in situ soil moisture: the case of the Yankin Basin, a tributary of the Niger River basin

Abstract

Soil moisture is known to be important in hydrology, agronomy, floods and drought forecasting. Acquisition of in situ soil moisture data is time consuming, costly, and does not cover the scale required for basin analysis. The consideration of remotely-sensed soil moisture is therefore promising. However, considering the limitations of remote sensing data, there is a need to check their validity prior to their utilization for impact studies. This in turn poses a problem in the absence of in situ soil moisture. The present study suggests a methodology for testing the validity of remotely-sensed soil moisture without in situ soil moisture. Hydrological models with a detailed soil moisture routine are calibrated and validated with stream flow data.