Soil Moisture Estimation over Jianghan Plain Using ENVISAT ASAR Data

Active microwave remote sensing techniques in the soil moisture inversion take advantages of their measurement on any weather conditions, strong capacity of penetrating the soil and their sensitivity to soil moisture content. This paper presents a method to estimate the soil moisture using ENVISAT ASAR data over Jianghan plain in China. First of all, water-cloud model is used to eliminate the impact of the vegetation cover. Secondly a new combination roughness is introduced to describe the roughness of soil surface. Thirdly the effect of surface roughness is ruled out with the use of empirical model, and then the soil moisture inversion algorithm is achieved by programming. Finally, a contrast of the inversion result which is based on statistical method is made to discuss the logarithm relationship between backscattering coefficient and soil moisture.