BARE SOIL MOISTURE RETRIEVAL FROM MULTI-TEMPORAL X-BAND TERRASAR-X SAR IMAGES

The aim of the present study is to analyze the sensitivity of X-band SAR (TerraSAR-X) signals as a function of different physical bare soil parameters (soil moisture, soil roughness), and to evaluate the accuracy of change detection approach proposed for soil moisture estimation. Firstly, we presented a brief description of our ground and satellite database. Secondly, we considered the main results of our statistical analysis of the relationships between radar and soil parameters: soil moisture and different roughness parameters (the rms height, Zs parameter, and a new roughness parameter Zg. Finally, we proposed an algorithm combing multi-temporal X-band SAR images (TerraSAR-X) with different continuous thetaprobe measurements for the retrieval of surface soil moisture at a high spatial resolution.