Estimating Root Zone Soil Moisture at Continental Scale Using Neural Networks

Abstract This study investigates the feasibility of artificial neural networks ( ANN s) to retrieve root zone soil moisture ( RZSM ) at the depths of 20 cm ( SM 20) and 50 cm ( SM 50) at a continental scale, using surface information. To train the ANN s to capture interactions between land surface and various climatic patterns, data of 557 stations over the continental United States were collected. A sensitivity analysis revealed that the ANN …