Multi-frequency analysis of soil moisture vertical heterogeneity effect on radar backscatter

The goal of this study is to discuss the effect of multi-frequency radar configurations on the relationship between surface soil moisture and the nature of radar backscatter over bare soils. In an attempt to answer this question, the Advanced Integral Equation Model (AIEM) was used to simulate backscatter from soil surfaces with various moisture vertical profiles, for three frequency bands: L, C and X. In these computations, we investigated the influence of the vertical heterogeneity of soil moisture on the characteristics of the backscattered signals. The effect of radar frequency is distinctly demonstrated. A database produced from Envisat ASAR and TerraSAR-X data, acquired over bare soils with in situ measurements of moisture content and ground surface roughness, was used to validate the usefulness of taking the soil moisture heterogeneity into account in the backscattering model.