The determination of mesoscale soil moisture patterns with ERS data

Mesoscale soil moisture maps can be determined quantitatively from coarse resolution radar backscatter data, which will be available in the near future from ENVISAT. The method requires the correction of the backscatter signal for the impact of forests, built-up areas, and water surfaces as well as a normalization of the backscatter to a reference crop and the correction of the plant water content. The required landuse data can be derived from AVHRR. Plant water content can be derived from observations, plant growth models, or estimated from NDVI