A global urban microwave backscatter time series data set for 1993–2020 using ERS, QuikSCAT, and ASCAT data

Urban settlements are rapidly growing outward and upward, with consequences for resource use, greenhouse gas emissions, and ecosystem and public health, but rates of change are uneven around the world. Understanding trajectories and predicting consequences of global urban expansion requires quantifying rates of change with consistent, well-calibrated data. Microwave backscatter data provides important information on upward urban growth – essentially the vertical built-up area. We developed a multi-sensor, multi-decadal, gridded (0.05° lat/lon) data set of global urban microwave backscatter, 1993–2020. Comparison of backscatter from two C-band sensors (ERS and ASCAT) and one Ku-band sensor (QuikSCAT) are made at four invariant non-urban sites (~3500 km(2)) to evaluate instrument stability and multi-decadal pattern. For urban areas, there was a strong linear correlation (overall R(2) = 0.69) between 2015 ASCAT urban backscatter and a continental-scale gridded product of building volume, across 8450 urban grid cells (0.05° × 0.05°) in Europe, China, and the USA. This urban backscatter data set provides a time series characterizing global urban change over the past three decades.