Airborne remote sensing provides a viable option for high resolution mapping of nearsurface soil moisture that allows larger areas to be covered in greater spatial and temporal detail than has hereto been possible from traditional ground based techniques. However, the current retrieval algorithms require information on near-surface soil temperature and vegetation water content in order to estim...

The reduction of crop growth and yield in dry areas is largely due to stomatal closure in response to dry soil, which decreases photosynthesis. However, the mechanism that causes stomatal closure in a drying soil is a controversial issue. Experienced and respected plant physiologists around the world have different views about the primary sensor of soil water shortage in plants. The goal of thi...

[1] Across vast, agriculturally intensive regions of the United States, the spread in predictions of summer temperature and soil moisture under global warming is curiously elevated in current climate models. Some models show modest warming of 2–3C and little drying or slight moistening by the 22nd century, while at the other extreme are simulations with warming as large as 7–8C and 20– 40% redu...

This study addresses the issue of the variability and heterogeneity problems that are expected from a sensor with a larger footprint having homogenous and heterogeneous sub-pixels. Improved understanding of spatial variability of soil surface characteristics such as land cover and vegetation in larger footprint are critical in remote sensing based soil moisture retrieval. This study analyzes th...

In agriculture, soil and meteorological sensors are used along low power networks to capture data, which allows for optimal resource usage and minimizing environmental impact. This study uses time series analysis methods for outliers' detection and pattern recognition on soil moisture sensor data to identify irrigation and consumption patterns and to improve a soil moisture prediction and irrig...

Accurate prediction of soil moisture in a land surface model (LSM) is critical in improving land surface and atmosphere interactions in the atmospheric general circulation models used in numerical weather prediction and global climate models. Gravity is a relatively new source of remotely sensed data, available since the launch of the twin Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment (GRACE) satelli...

The soil can act as a natural buffer by retaining toxic materials present in municipal and industrial wastes and sewage sludges. Countries of Eastern Europe currently have a limited industrial infrastructure for recycling wastes. One of the most rational and economic ways for these countries to dispose of their waste waters and sludges is to apply them to agricultural fields, thereby utilizing ...

Timely information of soil water content is urgently required for monitoring ecosystem processes and functions at various scales. Although remote sensing has already provided many practical applications of retrieving soil moisture, it is largely limited to visible/near infrared or microwave domains and few studies have ever been conducted on the thermal infrared. In addition, soil salinization ...