A theory of maximum entropy production and its application to microwave remote sensing—Simultaneous retrieval of soil moisture and vegetation water content

A theory of maximum entropy production (MEP) for electromagnetic wave propagation in dielectric materials is proposed and applied to simultaneously retrieving soil moisture (SM) and vegetation water content (VWC) from L-band microwave brightness temperature (TB). One representation of the MEP principle states that a non-equilibrium system corresponds to such a configuration of energy fluxes that minimizes a dissipation function under the constraint of energy conservation. The dissipation function for radiative transfer is formulated as an analogy of that for heat transfer. A new physical parameter, radiative inertia as an analogy of thermal inertia, is introduced to characterize radiative attenuation in dielectric media. The radiative inertia is parameterized in terms of the penetration depth of electromagnetic waves as a function of the complex dielectric constant. The MEP based retrieval algorithm predicts SM and VWC by minimizing the dissipation function under the constraint of the conservation of radiative energy. The retrievals of SM and VWC based on the MEP theory were validated against field observations in tropical and temperate forested regions of the Amazon and North America. The proof-of-concept analysis demonstrates the capability of the MEP algorithm for simultaneous retrievals of SM and VWC even for dense canopy (e.g., VWC > 5 kg m−2). The MEP method is a new theoretical framework for developing innovative remote sensing algorithms of the Earth system not limited to microwave observations.