Estimation of soil moisture and surface roughness parameters from backscattering coefficient

A statistical inversion technique was implemented to estimate soil moisture and surface roughness parameters from the remotely sensed multifrequency backscattering coefficients. Both two- and three-frequency approaches were examined and tested in detail for the inversion technique. Initially the technique was tested with a simulated data set generated from various scattering models. Later it was applied to an experimental data set that provided, for a wide range of surface roughness and soil moisture, backscattering coefficients at many incidence angles and frequencies. It was found that, in general, the three-frequency approach produces more accurate results. However, under a favorable combination of frequencies and incidence angles, both approaches give results with a comparable accuracy. There is a potential that soil moisture could be estimated to an accuracy of about 2%. In the mean time the surface roughness parameters could be estimated to an accuracy of better than 10%