Ricerc@Sapienza

The next generation of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) systems could foresee satellite missions based on a geosynchronous orbit (GEO SAR). These systems are able to provide radar images with an unprecedented combination of spatial (≥1 km) and temporal (≥12 h) resolutions. This paper investigates the GEO SAR potentialities for soil moisture (SM) mapping finalized to hydrological applications, and defines the best compromise, in terms of image spatio-temporal resolution, for SM monitoring.

This paper presents the first experimental results of a study on the ingestion in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, of Sentinel satellites and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) derived products. The experiments concern a flash-floodevent occurred in Tuscany (Central Italy) in September 2017. The rationale is that numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are presently able to produce forecasts with a km scale  spatial resolution, but the poor knowledge of the initial state of the atmosphere may imply an inaccurate simulation of the weather phenomena.

The Mediterranean region is frequently struck by severe rainfall events causing numerous casualties and several million euros of damages every year. Thus, improving the forecast accuracy is a fundamental goal to limit social and economic damages. NumericalWeather Prediction (NWP) models are currently able to produce forecasts at the km scale grid spacing but unreliable surface information and a poor knowledge of the initial state of the atmosphere may produce inaccurate simulations of weather phenomena.

The assimilation of satellite-derived soil moisture estimates (soil moisture-data assimilation, SM-DA) into hydrological models has the potential to reduce the uncertainty of streamflow simulations. The improved capacity to monitor the closeness to saturation of small catchments, such as those characterizing the Mediterranean region, can be exploited to enhance flash flood predictions. When compared to other microwave sensors that have been exploited for SM-DA in recent years (e.g.