An AI-Based Nested Large–Small Model for Passive Microwave Soil Moisture and Land Surface Temperature Retrieval Method

Retrieving soil moisture (SM) and land surface temperature (LST) provides crucial environmental data for smart agriculture, enabling precise irrigation, crop health monitoring, and yield optimization. The rapid advancement of Artificial intelligence (AI) hardware offers new opportunities to overcome...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Mengjie Liang, Kebiao Mao, Jiancheng Shi, Sayed M. Bateni, Fei Meng
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-03-01
Series:Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/17/7/1198
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Summary:Retrieving soil moisture (SM) and land surface temperature (LST) provides crucial environmental data for smart agriculture, enabling precise irrigation, crop health monitoring, and yield optimization. The rapid advancement of Artificial intelligence (AI) hardware offers new opportunities to overcome the limitations of traditional geophysical parameter retrieval methods. We propose a nested large–small model method that uses AI techniques for the joint iterative retrieval of passive microwave SM and LST. This method retains the strengths of traditional physical and statistical methods while incorporating spatiotemporal factors influencing surface emissivity for multi-hierarchical classification. The method preserves the physical significance and interpretability of traditional methods while significantly improving the accuracy of passive microwave SM and LST retrieval. With the use of the terrestrial area of China as a case, multi-hierarchical classification was applied to verify the feasibility of the method. Experimental data show a significant improvement in retrieval accuracy after hierarchical classification. In ground-based validation, the ascending and descending orbit SM retrieval models 5 achieved MAEs of 0.026 m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup> and 0.030 m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup>, respectively, improving by 0.015 m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup> and 0.012 m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup> over the large model, and 0.032 m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup> and 0.028 m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup> over AMSR2 SM products. The ascending and descending orbit LST retrieval models 5 achieved MAEs of 1.67 K and 1.72 K, respectively, with improvements of 0.67 K and 0.49 K over the large model, and 0.57 K and 0.56 K over the MODIS LST products. The retrieval model can theoretically be enhanced to the pixel level, potentially maximizing retrieval accuracy, which provides a theoretical and technical basis for the parameter retrieval of AI passive microwave large models.
ISSN:2072-4292