Forest Canopy Effects on the Estimation of Soil Moisture at L-Band

Truck-based measurements of brightness temperature at L- band over small deciduous stands located in Maryland were made in 2006 and 2007. Ground truth data related to forest stands and the ground were also collected. The deciduous trees were modeled by the Distorted Born Approximation (DBA) in conjunction with Peak's principle. The ground was modeled as a half space with surface roughness. The model has been used to investigate the sensitivity of L-band radiometers to soil moisture under forest stands. It was observed that it is possible to see through the forest to sense the underlying soil moisture and to see the seasonal changes.

[1]  R.H. Lang,et al.  Role of albedo in sensing soil moisture under vegetation with passive L-band algorithms , 2004, IGARSS 2004. 2004 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

[2]  D.M. Le Vine,et al.  L-Band Active and Passive Sensing of Soil Moisture through Forests , 2006, 2006 IEEE MicroRad.

[3]  David M. Le Vine,et al.  Discrete scatter model for microwave radar and radiometer response to corn: comparison of theory and data , 1994, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote. Sens..

[4]  P. O’neill,et al.  Multi-Sensor Microwave Soil Moisture Remote Sensing: NASA's Combined Radar/Radiometer (ComRAD) System , 2006, 2006 IEEE MicroRad.

[5]  C. Utku,et al.  ESTAR and model brightness temperatures over forests: effects of soil moisture , 2001, IGARSS 2001. Scanning the Present and Resolving the Future. Proceedings. IEEE 2001 International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (Cat. No.01CH37217).