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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, 2026, V. 23, No. 2, pp. 231-247

Retrieval of temperature profiles in heterogeneously moisturized loam soil based on multi-frequency brightness temperature observations

K.V. Muzalevskiy 1 
1 Kirensky Institute of Physics SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Accepted: 05.02.2026
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2026-23-2-231-247
In this theoretical research, potential possibilities and errors of temperature profiles retrieval in unevenly moistened thawed loamy soil were investigated on the basis of multi-frequency polarimetric observations of brightness temperature (BT) in the frequency ranges from 1.4 to 18.7 GHz and from 409 MHz to 18.7 GHz. To calculate BT (forward problem), a modified partially coherent emission model for bare soils with a smooth boundary (in the form of a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind), a physically-based soils dielectric model, and temperature and moisture profiles models (created by generalizing a large set of experimental data) were used. The illposed inverse problem of temperature profiles retrieval was solved using Tikhonov’s regularizing algorithm, the convergence properties of which were studied for various combinations of moisture and temperature profiles. The achievability of practically significant accuracy of 2–4 K (mean absolute error relative to the original temperature profiles) for temperature profiles retrieval in a 0–15 cm topsoil is shown even under relatively high noise (1.0 K) of BT observation. BT observations at an additional frequency of 409 MHz (to the range of 1.4 to 18.7 GHz) make it possible to significantly, ~3 times, reduce the error in temperature profiles retrieval at depths of 15–35 cm when soil volumetric moisture content is less than 16 %. The specific practical value of the conducted research lies in assessing the possibilities to retrieve soil temperature profiles using a given set of operational frequencies from current and future microwave radiometric remote sensing satellites.
Keywords: radiothermal emission, layered heterogeneous media, non-isothermal media, soil, moisture profiles, temperature profiles, permittivity
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