Detecting and Calculating the Soil Moisture Using Microwave Imagery (Case Study: Miyankale, Mazandaran)

Almost one third of the earth is covered by soil, which has several essential parameters. The soil moisture content is one of the essential parameters. The current research calculates the soil moisture content. There are known methods to calculate soil moisture; however, a new method has been chosen for this research. Microwave imagery is a novel appropriate way to detect and calculate the amount of moisture in soil. The SENTINEL-1 with SAR sensor has been a good satellite for research purpose. The microwaves sent by the satellite to the earth receives the backscatters which has been directly related to the amount of moisture. Thus four images were obtained at different time intervals of the year; 21st November 2015, 1st May 2016, 5th June 2016 and 29th September 2016. The study area of Miyankale is covered by four images. Furthermore, to calculate the moisture in Miyankale which was done by another method the results were finally compared with the percentage measured by satellite imagery. The accuracy of satellite data is confirmed by measuring the soil moisture by two different methods. The coefficient of determination R2 has been chosen to compare the data and check the microwave imagery. The R2coefficient is able to compare two independent data. The R2 coefficient is 0.82, 0.82, 0.78 and 0.81 for different time periods. The R2 ranges from 0 to 1, as the R2 values are closer to 1 the moisture obtained from SAR images is confirmed