A multitemporal algorithm, originally conceived for the C-band radar aboard the Sentinel-1 satellite, has been updated to retrieve soil moisture from L-band radar data, such as those provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Soil Moisture Active/ Passive (SMAP) mission. This type of algorithm may deliver more accurate soil moisture maps that mitigate the effect of roughness ...

Satellite-derived vegetation indices extracted over locations representative of midwestern U.S. cropland and forest for the period 1990–94 are analyzed to determine the sensitivity of the indices to neutron probe soil moisture measurements of the Illinois Climate Network (ICN). The deseasoned (i.e., departures from multiyear mean annual cycle) soil moisture measurements are shown to be weakly c...

Climate warming affects permafrost soil carbon pools in two opposing ways: enhanced vegetation growth leads to higher carbon inputs to the soil, whereas permafrost melting accelerates decomposition and hence carbon release. Here, we study the spatial and temporal dynamics of these two processes under scenarios of climate change and evaluate their influence on the carbon balance of the permafros...

Soil moisture is an important factor for vegetation restoration and ecosystem sustainability in the Loess Plateau of China. The strong spatial heterogeneity of soil moisture is controlled by many environmental factors, including topography and land use. Moreover, the spatial patterns and soil hydrological processes depend on the scale of the site being investigated, which creates a challenge fo...

Obtaining measurements of the near-surface soil water content from passive microwave observations requires knowledge of the soil effective temperature, which is a function of the soil temperature and moisture profiles. Detailed information on these profiles is not available from airborne remote sensing, but the effective temperature can be estimated via thermal infrared observations of the land...

the objective of this study was to determine the allowed and desired limits for heavy soils of texture (clay loom), as it has operational capability (friability), these limits were 6.34 mm for planting and 10.62 mm for harvesting in each raining or irrigation episode. we determined some factors that affect soil wetness and water content as follow: the amount and severity of rain, the condition ...

Previous work showed that remotely sensed soil moisture fields exhibit multiscaling and multifractal behavior varying with the scales of observations and hydrometeorological forcing (Remote Sens. Environ. 81 (2002) 1). Specifically, it was determined that this multiscaling behavior is consistent with the scaling of soil hydraulic properties and vegetation cover, while the multifractal behavior ...

To improve the understanding of water–vegetation relationships, direct comparative studies assessing the utility of satellite remotely sensed soil moisture, gridded precipitation products, and land surface model output are needed. A case study was investigated for a water-limited, lateral inflow receiving area in northeastern Australia during December 2008 to May 2009. In January 2009, monthly ...

The Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission, developed by the European Space Agency (ESA), will be launched in the second half of 2009. It will be the first L-band (~1.4 GHz) passive microwave satellite specifically designed for global soil moisture observations, with an expected accuracy for the retrieved soil moisture of ~0.04 m/m. While passive microwave observations have been widely...

Agricultural irrigation is the largest (80%) user of freshwater resources. With increasing freshwater demand, it is important to make optimal use of water resources with improved agricultural productivity through objective and accurate information provided by remote sensing. This paper reviews the potential of applications of microwave remote sensing of soil moisture and vegetation for agricult...