Field Observations of Temporal Variations of Surface Soil Moisture: Comparison with Insar Sentinel-1 Data

In this paper we summarize the results of an experiment aiming to compare soil moisture estimates obtained by Sentinel-l interferometric data with in-situ measurements. The study area, located close to Lisbon in Companhia das Lezirias, Portugal is characterized by a flat topography, large agricultural areas and sparse vegetation. In a test site, four soil moisture sensors were deployed and soil moisture was measured (at a depth of 5 cm) for a period of 7 months in an hourly basis. For the same interval of time and with a temporal resolution of 6 days C-band Sentinel-l SAR images were interferometrically processed and coherence, phase and phase triplet images were derived. The in-situ soil moisture measurements have been used to predict the analytical interferometric phases, coherences and phase triplets and compared with the measured interferometric phases in both VV and VH polarimetric channels. As a further analysis, a regression analysis of in-situ soil moisture measurement and Sentinel-l backscattering images has been carried out.