A fast TDR-inversion technique for the reconstruction of spatial soil moisture content S. Schlaeger Soil Moisture Group (SMG), University of Karlsruhe, Germany SCHLAEGER – mathematical solutions, Karlsruhe, Germany Received: 2 May 2005 – Accepted: 17 May 2005 – Published: 13 June 2005 Correspondence to: S. Schlaeger ([email protected]) © 2005 Author(s). This work is licensed under a Crea...

We studied the impacts of re-vegetation on soil moisture dynamics and evapotranspiration (ET) of five land cover types in the Loess Plateau in northern China. Soil moisture and temperature variations under grass (Andropogon), subshrub (Artemisia scoparia), shrub (Spiraea pubescens), plantation forest (Robinia pseudoacacia), and crop (Zea mays) vegetation were continuously monitored during the g...

Soil moisture content is a parameter of major importance for land applications at both watershed and regional scale such as hydrology and agriculture. In the past, a vast number of experimental and theoretical studies relating radar measurements to soil and vegetation parameters have been conducted. Such studies have widely demonstrated the sensitivity of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) measurem...

Radar-based surface soil moisture retrieval has been subject of intense research during the last decades. However, several difficulties hamper the operational estimation of soil moisture based on currently available spaceborne sensors. The main difficulty experienced so far results from the strong influence of other surface characteristics, mainly roughness, on the backscattering coefficient, w...

This paper describes the first outcomes of an activity aiming at validating the H-SAF soil moisture products derived from METOP-ASCAT data. For this purpose, an extensive comparison between SMOS and ASCAT derived soil moisture retrievals has been accomplished by considering the 25 km resolution ASCAT products and the SMOS level 2 products. Both Europe and Northern Africa have been considered an...

Soil moisture (SMC) is a key state variable that influences both global water and energy budgets by controlling the redistribution of rainfall into infiltration, runoff, percolation in soil, and evapotranspiration. Due to these characteristics and to the great effect on the surface energy exchange, soil moisture content may have a strong impact on climate change dynamics and it is, therefore, a...

Rainfall is a driving force for the transport of environmental contaminants from agricultural soils to surficial water bodies via surface runoff. The objective of this study was to characterize the effects of antecedent soil moisture content on the fate and transport of surface applied commercial urea, a common form of nitrogen (N) fertilizer, following a rainfall event that occurs within 24 hr...

Soil moisture at a horizontal scale of around 700 m and depths of 15 to 70 cm can be inferred from measurements of cosmic-ray neutrons that are generated within soil, moderated mainly by the hydrogen atoms in water, and emitted back to the atmosphere. The intensity of the resulting field of neutrons above the ground is sensitive to water content changes, largely insensitive to soil chemistry an...

Droughts can severely reduce the productivity of agricultural lands and forests. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Southeast Regional Climate Hub (SERCH) has launched the Lately Identified Geospecific Heightened Threat System (LIGHTS) to inform its users of potential water deficiency threats. The system identifies droughts and other climate anomalies such as extreme precipitati...

Beef cattle feedlots face serious environmental challenges associated with manure management, including greenhouse gas, odor, NH3, and dust emissions. Conditions affecting emissions are poorly characterized, but likely relate to the variability of feedlot surface moisture and manure contents, which affect microbial processes. Odor compounds, greenhouse gases, nitrogen losses, and dust potential...