To gather crucial information about how our planet is changing and to produce the finest data possible for modeling and prediction, it is crucial to measure the key climate variables.
Land Surface Temperature
A crucial factor in both biology and climatology, land surface temperature (LST) has an impact on species and ecosystems on a range of scales. LST measures the emission of thermal radiance from the land surface, where the incoming solar energy interacts with and heats the ground, or the surface of the canopy in vegetated areas, and is recognized by NASA and other international organizations as one of the most significant Earth System Data Records. This property makes LST sensitive to changing surface conditions and an useful indicator of energy partitioning at the land surface-atmosphere interface.
In many areas of the geosciences, such as the net radiation budget at the Earth’s surface, crop and vegetation monitoring, and as a key indication of both the greenhouse effect and the physics of land-surface processes at local to global scales, land surface temperature (LST) is crucial. Satellite LST measurements offer distinctive data sources with reasonable temporal and spatial resolution and period for regional and global coverage.
Soil Moisture
Soil moisture refers to the water that is trapped between soil particles. In contrast to root zone soil moisture, which is typically thought to be in the upper 200 cm of soil, surface soil moisture refers to the water that is in the top 10 cm of soil. The amount of soil moisture is tiny in comparison to other hydrologic cycle components, yet it is crucial to numerous hydrological, biological, and biogeochemical activities. Numerous government organizations and private businesses interested in weather and climate, runoff potential and flood control, soil erosion and slope failure, reservoir management, geotechnical engineering, and water quality can benefit from information on soil moisture. In order to regulate the movement of water and heat energy between the land surface and the atmosphere through evaporation and plant transpiration, soil moisture is a crucial factor. As a result, soil moisture is crucial to the formation of weather patterns and the precipitation cycle.
Improved surface soil moisture, vegetation, and temperature characterization can result in significant forecast improvements, simulations using numerical weather prediction models have demonstrated. The amount of precipitation that drains into the neighboring streams and rivers is also greatly influenced by the moisture of the soil. Information on soil moisture can be utilized for crop output predictions, irrigation scheduling, drought early warning, and reservoir management.
Vegetation
Indicators of ecological processes that are taking place on a site can be found in the vegetation, which can also be a useful management indication for monitoring. A species’ control over the sun, water, soil, and nutrient resources on a site is correlated with the area it occupies. It’s true that a plant’s biomass has a clearer relationship with its ecological dominance than its cover does. The amount of soil, water, and nutrients that a plant may utilize to produce biomass is represented by the amount of cover. Therefore, although cover is typically simpler to measure, it closely reflects biomass.
Cover can be used to describe ecosystems of many life types. The percentage of cover is denoted as a. As a result, grasses, forbs, shrubs, and trees all qualify as cover. In contrast to other characteristics like density or frequency, cover enables species of various life forms or morphologies to be evaluated on an equivalent basis. Cover is particularly beneficial when assessing hydrological processes. Foliar cover, for instance, affects how much rain is intercepted. Additionally, the ground cover, especially trash, affects possible erosion and infiltration.
