Remote Sensing of Energy Fluxes and Soil Moisture Content

"… Dr. Petropoulos has successfully brought together various chapters written by domain experts on the very challenging topic of ‘remote sensing based soil moisture measurement’, and structured the book in a smart and easy to read fashion. … This book is a visual example of how remote sensing is changing the perception about global monitoring systems, in particular future generations of precision agriculture." —Journal of Spatial Science, January 2016 "The book by George Petropoulos is an outstanding compendium of remote sensing methods for the study of the land surface energy balance. It covers the physical principles of turbulent heat fluxes between land and atmosphere, the physical basis of remote sensing of the land surface and the interfaces between models and data. It provides an invaluable resource for students at undergraduate and postgraduate level but also postdoctoral and academic researchers with relevant research interests. I personally like the emphasis on the importance of spatio-temporal scales in the study of land surface processes, which is sometimes overlooked in similar works. ... Throughout the book, particular attention is paid to the importance of soil moisture dynamics for the latent and sensible heat fluxes. Remote sensing can contribute a lot to an improved understanding of these processes." —Prof. Heiko Balzter, Director of the Centre for Landscape and Climate Research; Holder of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award; Principal Investigator of GIONET, European Centre of Excellence in Earth Observation Research Training University of Leicester, UK "George P. Petropoulos compiles the state of the art methods and modeling techniques in addressing the remote sensing observations of energy fluxes and soil moisture contents. The book encompasses a wide range of case studies putting together the recent developments and approaches in deriving the energy budgets by satellite technology. Its breadth and scope, the variety of data explored, and the rigorous analysis will provoke the readers to seek and explore various dimensions of the scientific method. Eventually, a well edited book with comprehensive theory and practical cases, and can serve as a reference for terrestrial remote sensing scientists, and early career researchers." —Dr. Tanvir Islam, NOAA/NESDIS/STAR "… interesting for both advanced users applying EO data in their studies and for newcomers, including students, wanting to learn the principles and their applications in real world problems. … In conclusion, the book integrates many years research conducted by the leading scientists in the fields and is written at a high scientific level." Mikihail Kanevski, Professor, Faculty of Geosciences and Environment, University of Lausanne, Switzerland "… a much needed monograph book … covers wide spectrum of the research field from comprehensive review to in-depth algorithm development to case studies and data assessment. … certainly a very useful reference book for research." —Dr Jianguo Liu, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London "… state of art on the latest information on remote sensing of energy fluxes and soil moisture content. … has put forth a challenge and task for the remote sensing scientists to improve the spatial resolution of the soil remote sensing sensors. … shows unparalleled examples of the case studies" —Professor Saumitra Mukherjee, Jawaharlal Nehru University "… a very useful and badly needed summary of state-of-the-art retrieval methods and applications of remotely sensed observations of energy fluxes and surface soil moisture. … a unique resource for students and beginners in the field of remote sensing of energy and soil moisture but also experienced professionals and application specialists who are either data providers or users. —Marko Scholze, Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Lund University, Sweden "… lays the groundwork for remote sensing of soil moisture and surface fluxes change, which are one of the important variables in current day sciences, weather as well as natural disaster prediction. This highly interdisciplinary reference work brings together diverse studies on surface energy fluxes and soil moisture from theoretical background to its applications represented through various case studies. The book offers a breath-taking range of resources from well-established scientists and academicians around the world with their valuable piece of work and opens a new window for scholars with interdisciplinary and methodological resources on latest ongoing researches. This diverse and exhilarating collection of book chapters explores the many important facets at presented at one place. Taken all together this piece of hard work presents state of the art research in a simplified form. It is a cornucopia of materials that will enliven remote sensing studies for soil moisture and flux change for those who are new to the field as well as for established scholars. At the last, I can say that, it is a ‘must read’ book for the scholars working in this field." —Dr. Prashant K. Srivastava, ESSIC/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA "… systematically presents an overview of the various methods developed, followed by algorithmic techniques with various case studies cited. Lastly, a look towards future directions and challenges directs the reader as to prospects. It is a nice abridged and condensed volume of the literature in the field, which I hope will entice more professionals in water resources to consider implementation of satellite measurements in water management where practicable." —Robert R Gillies, Utah State University "… an outstanding overview of the underlying theory and latest methods for deriving energy fluxes and soil surface moisture from remote sensing. The Editor, George Petropoulos, has convened the leading authorities in this diverse field to write valuable comprehensive reviews and detailed discussions of specific technical issues. This one-of-a-kind compilation of algorithm descriptions, case studies and future outlooks is an essential reference for a wide audience from researchers and teachers to practitioners and policy makers." —M. Susan Moran, Research Hydrologist, USDA ARS Southwest Watershed Research Center "… presents an outstanding collection of contributions from the world’s leading scientists in the field of remote sensing in hydrology, targeting an audience ranging from fellow scientists to post graduate students. It covers a variety of state of the art remote sensing sensors and methods across temporal and spatial scales ranging from field-scale to global applications. Furthermore, the book gives an excellent overview of the last two decades of research within remote sensing of energy fluxes and soil moisture and includes an interesting outlook on future challenges and perspectives." —Simon Stisen, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland "… brings together a remarkably wide range of articles from top scientists describing technological development, example applications, product quality assessment, and the current status of moving the technologies into operational use. … Its publication is timely because we are currently witnessing a tremendous growth and advancement of hydrological remote sensing techniques, and anyone interested in catching up with the development should read this book." —Wolfgang Knorr, Lund University, Sweden; Editor Geophysical Research Letters, American Geophysical Union