ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2019, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 203-216

Possibilities of remote sensing of soil moisture profile based on backscattering polarimetric observations in P- and C-bands

K.V. Muzalevskiy 1 
1 L.V. Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Accepted: 06.09.2019
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2019-16-5-203-216
In this theoretical work, a two-frequency polarimetric method is proposed for measuring moisture profiles in topsoil 30 cm thick. The problem was considered for monotonic moisture profiles, which were measured during 37 days after soil irrigation. Original values of co-polarization backscattering coefficients were calculated in scalar approximation by the Kirchhoff method and small perturbations method at a frequency of 5.4 GHz and 435 MHz, respectively. Experimentally measured moisture profiles and dielectric model of soil with a clay content of 14 % were used in the calculations. Soil moisture profiles were retrieved in the course of solving the inverse problem for the two frequencies, the cost function in which was selected as ratio of co-polarized HH-VV backscattering coefficients. Exponential function was used for modeling soil moisture profile. Standard error and square of correlation coefficient between the retrieved and measured values of soil moisture were found to be 0.01 cm3/cm3, and 0.92, respectively. These estimates were made for topsoil 30 cm thick. The obtained results remain suitable for the bistatic configuration of radar measurements. The study shows that the success of remote sensing of moisture profiles in the arable topsoil depends on selection of frequency range of radar. In this regard radar measurements are most expedient to carry out simultaneously at several frequencies of the ultra and super high frequency bands.
Keywords: backscattering, bistatic scattering, agro-soil, moisture profile, complex dielectric constant
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