{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,1]],"date-time":"2026-04-01T08:47:18Z","timestamp":1775033238863,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]],"date-time":"2020-07-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1595894400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41530752"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41530752"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41877148"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41877148"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["41501016"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["41501016"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100001809","name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["91125010"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["91125010"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100001809","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Temporal and spatial variability of soil moisture has an important impact on hydrological processes in mountainous areas. Understanding such variability requires soil moisture datasets at multiple temporal and spatial scales. Remote sensing is a very effective method to obtain surface (~5 cm depth) soil moisture at the regional scale but cannot directly measure soil moisture at deep soil layers (&gt;5 cm depth) currently. This study chose the upstream of the Heihe River Watershed in the Qilian Mountain Ranges in Northwest China as the study area to estimate the profile soil moisture (0\u201370 cm depth) at the regional scale using satellite Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Land Surface Temperature (LST) products. The study area was divided into 31 zones according to the combination of altitude, vegetation and soil type. Long-term in situ soil moisture observation stations were set up at each of the zones. Soil moisture probe, ECH2O, was used to collect soil moisture at five layers (0\u201310, 10\u201320, 20\u201330, 30\u201350 and 50\u201370 cm) continuously. Multiple linear regression equations of time series MODIS (Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) NDVI, LST and soil moisture were developed for each of the five soil layers at the 31 zones to estimate the soil moisture (0\u201370 cm) on a regional scale with a spatial resolution of 1 km2 and a temporal resolution of 16-d from October, 2013 to September, 2016. The correlation coefficient R of the regression equations was between 0.47 and 0.94, the RMSE was 0.03, indicating that the estimation method based on the MODIS NDVI and LST data was suitable and could be applied to alpine mountainous areas with complex topography, soil and vegetation types. The overall pattern of soil moisture spatial distribution indicated that soil moisture was higher in the eastern region than in the western region, and the soil moisture content in the whole study area was 14.5%. The algorithm and results provide novel applications of remote sensing to support soil moisture data acquisition and hydrological research in mountainous areas.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs12152414","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]],"date-time":"2020-07-28T10:16:49Z","timestamp":1595931409000},"page":"2414","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":24,"title":["Estimating Regional Soil Moisture Distribution Based on NDVI and Land Surface Temperature Time Series Data in the Upstream of the Heihe River Watershed, Northwest China"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7627-6498","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiao","family":"Bai","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of West China\u2019s Environmental System (Ministry of Education), Center for Dryland Water Resources Research and Watershed Science, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2592-1987","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lanhui","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of West China\u2019s Environmental System (Ministry of Education), Center for Dryland Water Resources Research and Watershed Science, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7748-0485","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chansheng","family":"He","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of West China\u2019s Environmental System (Ministry of Education), Center for Dryland Water Resources Research and Watershed Science, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China"},{"name":"Department of Geography, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI 49008, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yi","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Key Laboratory of West China\u2019s Environmental System (Ministry of Education), Center for Dryland Water Resources Research and Watershed Science, College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2616","DOI":"10.1002\/2014WR016852","article-title":"Soil hydrology: Recent methodological advances, challenges, and perspectives","volume":"51","author":"Vereecken","year":"2015","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"44","DOI":"10.1029\/2008WR006829","article-title":"On the value of soil moisture measurements in vadose zone hydrology: A review","volume":"44","author":"Vereecken","year":"2008","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Tian, J., Han, Z.B., Bogena, H.R., Huisman, J.A., Montzka, C., Zhang, B.Q., and He, C.S. (2019). Estimation of subsurface soil moisture from surface soil moisture in cold mountainous areas. Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., in review.","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-2019-603"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1138","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1100217","article-title":"Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation","volume":"305","author":"Koster","year":"2004","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"125","DOI":"10.1016\/j.earscirev.2010.02.004","article-title":"Investigating soil moisture\u2013Climate interactions in a changing climate: A review","volume":"99","author":"Seneviratne","year":"2010","journal-title":"Earth-Sci. Rev."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1068","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1128845","article-title":"Global Hydrological Cycles and World Water Resources","volume":"313","author":"Oki","year":"2006","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"555","DOI":"10.1029\/WR015i003p00555","article-title":"A Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Model for Transpiration and Availability of Soil Water","volume":"15","author":"Federer","year":"1979","journal-title":"Water Resour. Res."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"436","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2015.08.132","article-title":"Evaluating the coupling effects of climate aridity and vegetation restoration on soil erosion over the Loess Plateau in China","volume":"539","author":"Zhang","year":"2016","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"ref_9","first-page":"198","article-title":"A distributed daily runoff model of inland river mountainous basin","volume":"18","author":"Chen","year":"2003","journal-title":"Adv. Earth Sci."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"772","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jaridenv.2005.03.023","article-title":"Distribution and floristics of desert plant communities in the lower reaches of Tarim River, southern Xinjiang, People\u2019s Republic of China","volume":"63","author":"Zhang","year":"2005","journal-title":"J. Arid Environ."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"63","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2011.12.039","article-title":"Catchment scale soil moisture spatial\u2013temporal variability","volume":"422","author":"Brocca","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1281","DOI":"10.1175\/1520-0477(2000)081<1281:TGSMDB>2.3.CO;2","article-title":"The Global Soil Moisture Data Bank","volume":"81","author":"Robock","year":"2000","journal-title":"B. Am. Meteorol. Soc."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1888","DOI":"10.2136\/sssaj2013.03.0093","article-title":"State of the Art in Large-Scale Soil Moisture Monitoring","volume":"77","author":"Ochsner","year":"2013","journal-title":"Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"215","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2002.808243","article-title":"Soil moisture retrieval from AMSR-E","volume":"41","author":"Njoku","year":"2003","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1999","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2008.2011617","article-title":"An Improved Soil Moisture Retrieval Algorithm for ERS and METOP Scatterometer Observations","volume":"47","author":"Naeimi","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_16","first-page":"4611","article-title":"Evaluation of the agreement between the first global remotely sensed soil moisture data with model and precipitation data","volume":"108","author":"Wagner","year":"2003","journal-title":"J. Geophys. Res. Atoms."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5","DOI":"10.1127\/0941-2948\/2013\/0399","article-title":"The ASCAT Soil Moisture Product: A Review of its Specifications, Validation Results, and Emerging Applications","volume":"22","author":"Wagner","year":"2013","journal-title":"Meteorol. Z."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"666","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2010.2043032","article-title":"The SMOS mission: New tool for monitoring key elements ofthe global water cycle","volume":"98","author":"Kerr","year":"2010","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"704","DOI":"10.1109\/JPROC.2010.2043918","article-title":"The soil moisture active passive (SMAP) mission","volume":"98","author":"Entekhabi","year":"2010","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"187","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2014.12.038","article-title":"Spatio-temporal variability of global soil moisture products","volume":"522","author":"Montzka","year":"2015","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Xu, C.Y., Qu, J.J., Hao, X.J., Cosh, M., Prueger, J., Zhu, Z.L., and Gutenberg, L. (2018). Downscaling of Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval by Combining MODIS\/Landsat and In Situ Measurements. Remote Sens., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10020210"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Zhang, L.H., He, C.S., and Zhang, M.M. (2017). Multi-Scale Evaluation of the SMAP Product Using Sparse In-Situ Network over a High Mountainous Watershed, Northwest China. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9111111"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"213","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(01)00274-7","article-title":"A simple interpretation of the surface temperature\/vegetation index space for assessment of surface moisture status","volume":"79","author":"Sandholt","year":"2002","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128","DOI":"10.1109\/PROC.1975.9712","article-title":"Geologic applications of thermal infrared images","volume":"63","author":"Watson","year":"1975","journal-title":"Proc. IEEE"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"59","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(85)90038-0","article-title":"On the analysis of thermal infrared imagery: The limited utility of apparent thermal inertia","volume":"18","author":"Price","year":"1985","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1016\/S0022-1694(01)00589-3","article-title":"Estimation of root zone soil moisture and surface fluxes partitioning using near surface soil moisture measurements","volume":"259","author":"Li","year":"2002","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4403","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-21-4403-2017","article-title":"Multi-decadal analysis of root-zone soil moisture applying the exponential filter across CONUS","volume":"21","author":"Tobin","year":"2017","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss."},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lu, Z., Chai, L.N., Liu, S.M., Cui, H.Z., Zhang, Y.H., Jiang, L.M., Jin, R., and Xu, Z.W. (2017). Estimating time series soil moisture by applying recurrent nonlinear autoregressive neural networks to passive microwave data over the Heihe River Basin, China. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9060574"},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1036","DOI":"10.1080\/02626667.2020.1730846","article-title":"Performance evaluation of soil moisture profile estimation through entropy-based and exponential filter models","volume":"65","author":"Mishra","year":"2020","journal-title":"Hydrol. Sci. J."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"11","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2019.111533","article-title":"High-resolution mapping of in-depth soil moisture content through a laboratory experiment coupling a spectroradiometer and two hyperspectral cameras","volume":"236","author":"Bablet","year":"2020","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4219","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160701871096","article-title":"Land surface temperature variation in relation to vegetation type using MODIS satellite data in Gujarat state of India","volume":"29","author":"Parida","year":"2008","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"325","DOI":"10.1016\/j.scitotenv.2018.11.360","article-title":"Contributions of climate change and vegetation greening to evapotranspiration trend in a typical hilly-gully basin on the Loess Plateau, China","volume":"657","author":"Bai","year":"2019","journal-title":"Sci. Total Environ."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"127","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(79)90013-0","article-title":"Red and photographic infrared linear combinations for monitoring vegetation","volume":"8","author":"Tucker","year":"1979","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"167","DOI":"10.1016\/0034-4257(96)00039-9","article-title":"Mapping land surface emissivity from NDVI: Application to European, African, and South American areas","volume":"57","author":"Valor","year":"1996","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2563","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160110115041","article-title":"Land surface temperature and emissivity estimation from passive sensor data: Theory and practice-current trends","volume":"23","author":"Dash","year":"2002","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"393","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2017.01.020","article-title":"Predicting root zone soil moisture with soil properties and satellite near-surface moisture data across the conterminous United States","volume":"546","author":"Baldwin","year":"2017","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8250","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70708250","article-title":"Estimation of Surface Soil Moisture from Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing Using an Improved Trapezoid Method","volume":"7","author":"Yang","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Montzka, C., R\u00f6tzer, K., Bogena, H., Sanchez, N., and Vereecken, H. (2018). A New Soil Moisture Downscaling Approach for SMAP, SMOS, and ASCAT by Predicting Sub-Grid Variability. Remote Sens., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs10030427"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1437","DOI":"10.1002\/ldr.2665","article-title":"Variability in Soil Hydraulic Conductivity and Soil Hydrological Response Under Different Land Covers in the Mountainous Area of the Heihe River Watershed, Northwest China","volume":"28","author":"Tian","year":"2017","journal-title":"Land Degrad. Dev."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3318","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.10437","article-title":"Modelling the impacts of spatial heterogeneity in soil hydraulic properties on hydrological process in the upper reach of the Heihe River in the Qilian Mountains, Northwest China","volume":"29","author":"Jin","year":"2015","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_41","first-page":"157","article-title":"Multi-factor evaluation and modeling correction of EC-5 and 5TE soil moisture content sensors","volume":"28","author":"Ye","year":"2012","journal-title":"Trans. Chin. Soc. Agric. Eng."},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"225","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2019.03.006","article-title":"Dynamic response patterns of profile soil moisture wetting events under different land covers in the Mountainous area of the Heihe River Watershed, Northwest China","volume":"271","author":"Tian","year":"2019","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_43","unstructured":"Didan, K. (2015). MOD13A2 MODIS\/Terra Vegetation Indices 16-Day L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V006."},{"key":"ref_44","unstructured":"Wan, Z., Hook, S., and Hulley, G. (2015). MOD11A2 MODIS\/Terra Land Surface Temperature\/Emissivity 8-Day L3 Global 1km SIN Grid V006."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"491","DOI":"10.1080\/014311697218917","article-title":"The use of \u2018overlapping\u2019 NOAA-AVHRR NDVI maximum value composites for Scotland and initial comparisons with the land cover census on a Scottish regional and District basis","volume":"18","author":"Marcal","year":"1997","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"35","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(96)00137-X","article-title":"Multitemporal, multichannel AVHRR data sets for land biosphere studies\u2014Artifacts and corrections","volume":"60","author":"Cihlar","year":"1997","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"519","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2005.06.007","article-title":"Atmospheric conditions for monitoring the long-term vegetation dynamics in the Amazon using normalized difference vegetation index","volume":"97","author":"Kobayashi","year":"2005","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1824","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2002.802519","article-title":"Seasonality extraction by function fitting to time-series of satellite sensor data","volume":"40","author":"Jonsson","year":"2002","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2005.10.021","article-title":"Improved monitoring of vegetation dynamics at very high latitudes: A new method using MODIS NDVI","volume":"100","author":"Beck","year":"2006","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."}],"container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/15\/2414\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T09:52:14Z","timestamp":1760176334000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2072-4292\/12\/15\/2414"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]]},"references-count":49,"journal-issue":{"issue":"15","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,8]]}},"alternative-id":["rs12152414"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/rs12152414","relation":{},"ISSN":["2072-4292"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2072-4292","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2020,7,28]]}}}