On the effect of soil surface roughness on the radar backscatter responses to soil moisture

Author

Smacchia, P. ; Casarano, D. ; De Carolis, G. ; Posa, F. ; Toan, T. Le ; Souyris, J.C. ; Boudier, N.

Author_Institution

Istituto Tecnologies Inf. Spaziali, CNR, Matera, Italy

Volume

3

fYear

1994

fDate

8-12 Aug 1994

Firstpage

1567

Abstract

Presents the results obtained from the analysis of NASA/JFL AIRSAR data acquired during the MAC EUROPE campaign in June 1991 over the Matera test site in Italy. During the overflight, an experiment was performed on agricultural fields to study the effect of soil moisture and soil surface roughness on the radar backscattering. After calibration, the backscattering coefficients at L and C bands have been analyzed mainly as functions of surface roughness parameters. The observations have been interpreted by theoretical surface backscatter models. The results are related to the following topics: 1) the relevance of surface roughness measurements, 2) the comparison between radar measurements and models and 3) the possibility to retrieve soil moisture from radar data

Keywords

airborne radar; backscatter; electromagnetic wave scattering; geophysical techniques; hydrological techniques; microwave imaging; moisture measurement; radar applications; radar cross-sections; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; soil; synthetic aperture radar; AD 1991 06; AIRSAR; Italy; JFL; L-band C-band; MAC EUROPE campaign; Matera; NASA; SAR; UHF SHF; agricultural field; airborne radar; backscatter; gephysical measurement technique; hydrology; land surface; radar backscatter response; radar remote sensing; radar scattering; soil moisture; soil surface roughness; theoretical model; Backscatter; Calibration; Europe; Moisture measurement; NASA; Radar measurements; Rough surfaces; Soil moisture; Surface roughness; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1994. IGARSS '94. Surface and Atmospheric Remote Sensing: Technologies, Data Analysis and Interpretation., International

Conference_Location

Pasadena, CA

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1497-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1994.399499

Filename

399499