Towards an operational procedure to map soil moisture using SAR: Results of a seven-year-experiment over an agricultural area
- 1 July 2011
- conference paper
- conference paper
- Published by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2011 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
- p. 3129-3131
- https://doi.org/10.1109/igarss.2011.6049881
Abstract
In this work, the outcomes of a research activity, that lasted approximately seven years (2003-2010), in which soil moisture was monitored on a test site in Northern Italy by collecting a series of SAR images and in situ data are presented. Radar data were provided by the C-band ENVISAT/ASAR instrument. The research activity aimed at calibrating and validating a pre-operational algorithm, conceived to be used by the Italian Civil Protection, for high resolution soil moisture mapping from SAR data. The algorithm is focused on the Bayesian theory of parameter estimation. The Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) probability criterion or the Minimum Variance one are used to retrieve soil moisture by inverting a forward scattering model. Ancillary data such as optical images and land cover data are also used. The results of the validation activity have confirmed the validity of the proposed mapping approach. In particular, the algorithm allowed us to retrieve soil moisture with a R2 coefficient of 0.77 and with a root mean square error in the order of 0.07 m3/m3.Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- Soil moisture estimation over vegetated terrains using multitemporal remote sensing dataRemote Sensing of Environment, 2010
- High resolution mapping of soil moisture by SAR: Data integration and exploitation of prior informationPublished by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ,2009
- Inversion of Electromagnetic Models for Bare Soil Parameter Estimation from Multifrequency Polarimetric SAR DataSensors, 2008
- Semi-empirical model of the ensemble-averaged differential Mueller matrix for microwave backscattering from bare soil surfacesIEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 2002
- Vegetation modeled as a water cloudRadio Science, 1978