Title:Space-borne Passive Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture: A Review
Volume: 4
Issue: 2
Author(s): Vijay S. Bhagat
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Calibrations, dielectric properties, enhancements, frequency, models, passive microwave,
polarimetry, radiometry, remote sensing.
Abstract: Soil moisture (SM) plays an important role in groundwater recharge, runoff, air
moisture, atmospheric temperature, land degradation, geo-chemical process, surface and
sub-surface biota including agriculture, etc. Several studies have reported comparable
results of space-borne passive microwaves remote sensing of surface (2 to 5 cm) SM using
relationship between volumetric SM and brightness temperature, dielectric constant, polarimetry, roughness
parameter, mathematical inferences, etc. However, reported success studies are very site-, image -, overpass
time-, model- and situation specific and insufficient to reach at global conclusions. Therefore, reported
methods, techniques and algorithms should thoroughly be tested in different biophysical environments to
assess applicability in SM retrievals using microwave data captured at different frequencies, polarization,
angle, time, etc.
