Analysis of Satellite Soil Moisture Data for Land Cover Ecological Monitoring in Ukraine

To assess the consequences of the Russian armed aggression and determine the strategy for resilient recovery of the damaged territories of southern Ukraine, particularly the occupied territories, it is important to study the ecological state of the land cover. The soil moisture is one of the important informative features effective for assessing the ecological state of the land cover in particular regarding the trend of desertification. This study deals with satellite and geospatial soil moisture data sources, including SMAP, GLDAS, FLDAS, CFSR, CFSV2, and ERA5-Land products. These data's spatial-temporal resolution, accuracy, and practical applicability were analyzed. For the first time, different soil moisture products for the regions of Ukraine starting from 2015 to 2024 were compared using satellite Big Data analysis and the correlation matrix. The results show the differences between products under study and highlight the importance of selecting the appropriate data source for specific soil moisture monitoring tasks. The research is the first step in creating the remote monitoring information technology of the land cover ecological state to support the recovery of several economic activity areas, in particular, assessment of damage and losses due to military actions, resource management of agricultural activities, etc.