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Original Articles

Monitoring of soil moisture over the Kuwait desert using remote sensing techniques

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Pages 4373-4385 | Received 10 Jun 2008, Accepted 02 Dec 2008, Published online: 13 Sep 2010
 

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted in synchronous with Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) passes over the Kuwait desert covering one pixel of 25 km circular diameter. Forty-five soil samples were collected within a pixel resolution to estimate the effective soil moisture, and nine such campaigns were conducted during the period December 2005 to March 2006. Field-estimated soil moisture values up to 5 cm depth were compared with AMSR-E soil moisture values and our model results. It was observed that the field soil moisture values are consistently lower than AMSR-E and our model values. However, the difference is within the errors. AMSR-E soil moisture and our model values agree with each other. Monthly average soil moisture maps of Kuwait were generated from AMSR-E data to study the temporal and spatial variability of soil moisture. It is observed that the maximum soil moisture during January is about 10%, and most of the year the values are about 5% soil moisture.

Acknowledgement

The support provided by Kuwait University through project code SP06/04 is gratefully acknowledged.

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