PHOTOGRAMMETRIC ENGINEERING & REMOTE SENSING
October 2014
933
BOOK
REVIEW
Remote Sensing of Energy Fluxes and
Soil Moisture Content
Edited by: George P. Petropoulos
CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL. 2014 xxiii and 506 pp. diagrams,
maps, photos, images and index. Hardcover. $125.96
ISBN-13: 978-1466505780
Reviewed by:
Keith T. Weber, GIS Director,
GIS Training and Research Center, Idaho State
University, Pocatello, ID.
I
ntroduction
While other texts are available that deal with some of the
same subject matter, I am not aware of any book that covers
the breadth of this topic (from fundamental underpinnings to
applied case studies) within a single volume. Remote sensing of
Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture Content accomplishes all this
in just 500 pages and still provides details on both theory and
remote sensing application. The majority of the book (55%)
is devoted to 13 chapters focusing on case studies with a brief
summary of future directions rounding out the text.
Remote
Sensing of Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture Content
contains
65 color figures from among its 20 chapters which will aid
the reader and allow for a better understanding of the topics
presented. I should note that while George P. Petropoulos is
listed as the author, he is more correctly listed as the editor
of this volume (as well as the author or co-author of a given
chapter). In reality this book integrates the knowledge of over
fifty authors throughout its pages.
D
escription
Four sections are used to organize this book, with the first
section (chapters one through five) providing an overview of
the fundamental drivers and underlying critical concepts.
Chapter one begins with a review of the hydrologic cycle and
an overview of the physical principles that drive evaporation,
transpiration, and evapotranspiration. The authors also
describe the methods commonly used to estimate and quantify
these processes. The second chapter focusses specifically
upon soil moisture and the variables that control or drive
soil moisture content (SMC). These variables are described
individually and include climatological/meteorological factors,
topography (the effect of slope and aspect), soil properties
and soil structure, vegetation and land cover, and finally land
use. The remainder of the chapter then details the numerous
methods used to measure and monitor soil moisture in the
field along with discussion of various monitoring networks.
Chapter three provides a background for remote sensing of
energy flux and soil moisture by describing the approaches
most commonly used to estimate latent heat (LE) and sensible
heat (
H
) flux as well as an overview of remote sensing based
estimations from various satellite platforms including ASTER,
Landsat, MODIS, and AVHRR/3, AATSR, and SEVIRI.
Similarly in chapter four, the text focusses upon satellite
remote sensing of surface soil moisture with a review of optical,
thermal, and both active and passive microwave techniques.
This chapter also provides a description of four operational
soil moisture content products from AMSR-E, ASCAT, SMOS,
and WINDSAT along with notes regarding the upcoming Soil
Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite that is planned for
launch late in 2014.
Chapter five rounds out a review of the many important
foundational concepts by providing a detailed discussion
of remote sensing of the land surface radiation budget by
including individual sections detailing incident solar radiation,
surface shortwave albedo, long wave downward and upwelling
radiation, as well as all-wave net radiation.
Section two provides the reader with a series of six case
studies (chapters six through 11) that occupy nearly 30% of
the book. Case studies are always valuable as they provide the
reader with information regarding how a specific technology
was applied or put into practice and how the theoretical aspects
of a technology (covered in section one) were substantiated (or
not) by the study. Case studies presented in this section will
appeal to a broad scientific audience with some being regional
in focus (e.g., Brazil and China) while others are global in scale.
Section three (chapters 12 through 18) provides seven
additional case studies focused very specifically on surface
soil moisture and coupling remotely sensed surface data to
understanding soil moisture throughout the soil profile. These
chapters will certainly appeal to the applied sciences.
The final two chapters constitute section four and focus
