Incorporating a vegetation index into a soil moisture retrieval model $results from Convair-580 SAR data

A flexible method of introducing a SAR vegetation index into the Dubois model for soil moisture retrieval using polarimetric SAR data is introduced. Based on the vegetation sensitivity at each pixel, the vegetation index is incorporated on a pixel by pixel basis using the water cloud model. An approach for minimizing the need for ground measurements, by remotely estimating the parameters required for the vegetation index, is suggested. The proposed model is applied to CV-580 airborne SAR data and the vegetation correction was found to reduce the rms error in the model.