Summary: | As an important parameter in Land surface system research, surface soil moisture (SSM) links the surface water and groundwater that plays a key role in water resources, agricultural management and global warming studies. Remote sensing techniques provide a direct and convenient means to estimate SSM on a regional scale. In this study, the performance of the normalized land surface temperature-vegetation index (LST-VI) model was evaluated using the in situ soil moisture measurements at Hetao irrigation region of Inner Mongolia that is a representative semi-arid area with relatively uniform underlying surface. The model was used to estimate soil moisture from HJ-1B and Landsat 8 images on clear days in 2014–2017. The overall SSM estimation accuracy was high, and the average RMSE was approximately 0.04 m3/m3. Moreover, a systematic sensitivity analysis was conducted for the input parameters and other impact factors. The results demonstrated that the model could credibly monitor the regional surface soil water content.
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