Land surface monitoring by backscattering coefficient from TRMM/PR 2A21

The near nadir incident angle which reduces the absorption and scattering from canopy layers should have enabled the TRMM/PR satellite radar to monitor the land surface below canopies. Even though the data may not be applicable for densely vegetated areas, monitoring of soil moisture is particularly important for non-vegetated and sparsely vegetated area for climatic applications and the results obtained here is highly encouraging to utilize the σ0 by TRMM/PR for the monitoring of soil moisture. More comprehensive analysis and validation efforts should be carried out, and it is also required to examine the mechanism why TRMM/PR at 14 GHz can detect the soil moisture of land surface below the canopy