Incorporating soil texture in soil moisture estimation from extended low‐1 beam mode RADARSAT‐1 SAR data

Abstract

Sensitivity of microwaves towards soil moisture is well understood; still, development of a practical algorithm for soil moisture estimation using microwaves is difficult. This is due to the fact that along with their strong sensitivity to soil moisture, microwave signals are also sensitive to other target properties such as soil texture, surface roughness, and crop cover. In this paper, an attempt has been made to incorporate the effect of soil texture in large area soil moisture mapping using extended low‐1 beam mode RADARSAT‐1 SAR data in such a way that knowledge of soil texture is not a prerequisite.

Acknowledgements

First author is extremely thankful to Mr Hari Shanker Srivastava, Director, RRSSC/NNRMS and EOS, ISRO Headquarters, Bangalore, India and Prof. V. K. Jha, Head, RRSSC, Dehradun, India for encouragement and support. Mrs Parul Patel extends her thanks to Shri J. S. Parihar, Group Director, ARG, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, India and Mission Director, RSAM, and Dr Sushma Panigrahi, Head, AMD, Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, India for encouragement and support.