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

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