Model of complex dielectric constant of wet and frozen soil in the 1-40 GHz frequency range

The increase in accuracy of land surface parameters retrieval from radiometer data requires the definition of soil dielectric behavior. The major objective of this study was to describe the soil permittivity at microwave frequencies as function of its physical parameters. The author introduced a way of taking into account the scattering by means of using dynamic polarizability of the spherical particles that compose the medium. Wet soil is considered an air medium, containing spherical inclusions of quartz covered with film of bound water in the case of low soil moisture and of liquid water in the case of high soil moisture. Frozen soil is modelled by an air medium containing spherical ice particles and spherical quartz particles covered with bound water film. The prediction of the model agree well with the experimental data in the wide range of soil parameters. The distinctive feature of this model is the absence of free parameters and the use of real physical characteristics of soil