Modeling of soil roughness using terrestrial laser scanner for soil moisture retrieval

The present work reports the bases of an ongoing research whose main objective is the development of a methodology to characterize surface roughness models using terrestrial laser scanning devices. The classical measurements take the profile as the valuable information on roughness variations but a brand new paradigm is applied here where an original three-dimensional, multi-scale framework leads towards an accurate characterization of patterns and roughness for different surfaces. Terrestrial laser scanners are able to provide a complete picture of the roughness properties over the spatial scale of a Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite resolution cell. The paper describes the methodology for measuring the roughness of different surfaces and analyzes parameters what can be used as ancillary data in soil moisture retrieval from satellite datasets.