Study of scattering coefficient of flooded soil, semi dry soil and natural dry soil at CJ, X and Ku band of microwave frequencies

The soil is one of the natural earth material which is produced by withering of rocks. The soil is characterized by its physical and electrical parameters. The physical parameters include the texture, temperature, surface roughness. The electrical parameters are dielectric constant, emissivity and scattering coefficient. The emissivity and scattering coefficient are function of dielectric constant of the soil and also function of sensor parameters like polarization, angle of incidence and frequency of operation. In this study, the scattering coefficient is measured for different conditions of the soil which include flooded, semi dry and natural dry soil at CJ, X and Ku band of microwave frequencies using ground based scatterometer which can be used for study of different terrains and other geophysical parameters. The scatterometer used in this experiment consists of components like gun oscillator, directional coupler, horn antenna and power meter as receiver. The soil is a mixture of sand, silt and clay with air pores. The natural soil is having some percentage of moisture content. In present case, the percentage moisture of natural dry soil is around 2.17% and semi dry soil having 7.2% of moisture content by weight. The flooded soil is fully saturated with water and has a 3 mm to 5 mm layer of water above the soil surface. Here, the scattering coefficients obtained for incidence angle from 20deg to 60deg with 5deg intervals at CJ (5.2 GHz), X (11.22 GHz) and Ku (12.83GHz) band of microwave frequencies for V-H and V-V polarization for different soil surfaces have been presented. The methodology of measurement along with experimental setup and estimation of scattering coefficients at CJ, X and Ku band of microwave frequencies for V-H and V-V polarization for different soil surface have been presented. This study will provide inputs for microwave remote sensing applications.