The C-band radar instruments onboard the two-satellite GMES Sentinel-1 constellation provide global measurements with short revisit time (about six days) and medium spatial resolution (5 × 20 m), which are appropriate for watershed scale hydrological applications. This paper aims to explore the potential of Sentinel-1 for estimating surface soil moisture using a multi-temporal approach. To this end, a linear mixed effects (LME) model was developed over Poyang Lake ungauged zone, using time series Sentinel 1A and 1B images and soil moisture ground measurements from 15 automatic observation sites. The model assumed a linear relationship that varied with both time and space between soil moisture and backscattering coefficient (SM- ${\sigma }^0$ ). Results showed that three LME models developed with different polarized ${\sigma }^0$ images all meet the European Space Agency (ESA) accuracy requirement for GMES soil moisture product (≤5% in volume), with the vertical transmit and vertical receive (VV) polarized model achieving the best performance. However, the SM- ${\sigma }^0$ relationship was found to depend strongly on space, making it difficult to predict absolute soil moisture for each grid. Therefore, a relative soil moisture index was then proposed to correct for site effect. When compared with those of the linear fixed effects model, the soil moisture indices predicted by the LME model captured the temporal dynamics of measured soil moisture better, with the overall R² and cross-validated R² being 0.68 and 0.64, respectively. These results indicate that the LME model can be effectively applied to estimate soil moisture from multi-temporal Sentinel-1 images, which is useful for monitoring flood and drought disasters, and for improving stream flow prediction over ungauged zones.

Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) is crucial for urban air quality assessment. However, the frequently used moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) AOD product at 10 km resolution is too coarse to be applied in a regional-scale study. Gaofen-1 (GF-1) wide-field-of-view (WFV) camera data, with high spatial and temporal resolution, has great potential in estimation of AOD. Due to the lack of shortwave infrared (SWIR) band and complex surface reflectivity brought from high spatial resolution, it is difficult to retrieve AOD from GF-1 WFV data with traditional methods. In this paper, we propose an improved AOD retrieval algorithm for GF-1 WFV data. The retrieved AOD has a spatial resolution of 160 m and covers all land surface types. Significant improvements in the algorithm include: (1) adopting an improved clear sky composite method by using the MODIS AOD product to identify the clearest days and correct the background atmospheric effect; and (2) obtaining local aerosol models from long-term CIMEL sun-photometer measurements. Validation against MODIS AOD and ground measurements showed that the GF-1 WFV AOD has a good relationship with MODIS AOD (R² = 0.66; RMSE = 0.27) and ground measurements (R² = 0.80; RMSE = 0.25). Nevertheless, the proposed algorithm was found to overestimate AOD in some cases, which will need to be improved upon in future research.

The estimation of ambient particulate matter with diameter less than 10 µm (PM₁₀) at high spatial resolution is currently quite limited in China. In order to make the distribution of PM₁₀ more accessible to relevant departments and scientific research institutions, a semi-physical geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was established in this study to estimate nationwide mass concentrations of PM₁₀ using easily available MODIS AOD and NCEP Reanalysis meteorological parameters. The results demonstrated that applying physics-based corrections could remarkably improve the quality of the dataset for better model performance with the adjusted R² between PM₁₀ and AOD increasing from 0.08 to 0.43, and the fitted results explained approximately 81% of the variability in the corresponding PM₁₀ mass concentrations. Annual average PM₁₀ concentrations estimated by the semi-physical GWR model indicated that many residential regions suffer from severe particle pollution. Moreover, the deviation in estimation, which primarily results from the frequent changes in elevation, the spatially heterogeneous distribution of monitoring sites, and the limitations of AOD retrieval algorithm, was acceptable. Therefore, the semi-physical GWR model provides us with an effective and efficient method to estimate PM₁₀ at large scale. The results could offer reasonable estimations of health impacts and provide guidance on emission control strategies in China.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides widespread Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) datasets for climatological and environmental health research. Since MODIS AOD clearly lacks coverage in orbit-scanning gaps and cloud obscuration, some applications will benefit from data recovery using multi-temporal AOD. Aimed at qualitatively describing the relationship between multi-temporal AOD, AOD loadings and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) have been considered based on the mechanism of satellite AOD retrieval. Accordingly, the NDVI-based Weighted Linear Regression (NWLR) has been proposed to recover AOD by synthetically weighing AOD similarity, spatial proximity, and NDVI similarity. To evaluate the performance of AOD recovery, simulated experiments applying gap and window masks were conducted in South Asia and Beijing, respectively. The evaluation results demonstrated that the linear regression R2 achieved 0.8 and the absolute relative errors remained steady. Further validation was conducted between the recovered and actual AODs using 56 Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sites in East and South Asia from 2013 to 2015, which demonstrated that over 41% of recovered AODs fell within the expected error (EE) envelope. Additional validation conducted in South Asia and Beijing showed that recovery by NWLR did not expand satellite-derived AOD errors, and the accuracy of recovered AOD was consistent with the accuracy of the original Aqua MODIS Deep Blue (DB) AOD. The recovery results illustrated that AOD coverage was improved in most regions, especially in North China, Mongolia, and South Asia, which could provide better support in aerosol spatio-temporal analysis and aerosol data assimilation.