A key state variable in land surface–atmosphere interactions is soil moisture, which affects surface energy fluxes, runoff and the radiation balance. Soil moisture modelling relies on parameter estimates that are inadequately measured at the necessarily fine model scales. Hence, model soil moisture estimates are imperfect and often drift away from reality through simulation time. Because of its...

There is a need for low-cost, high-accuracy measurement of water content in various materials. This study assesses the performance of a new microwave swept frequency domain instrument (SFI) that has promise to provide a low-cost, high-accuracy alternative to the traditional and more expensive time domain reflectometry (TDR). The technique obtains permittivity measurements of soils in the freque...

Spatially variable soil properties influence the performance of soil water content monitoring sensors. The objectives of this research were to: (i) study the spatial variability of bulk density (ρ(b)), total porosity (θ(t)), clay content (CC), electrical conductivity (EC), and pH in the upper Mākaha Valley watershed soils; (ii) explore the effect of variations in ρ(b) and θ(t) on soil water con...

In this work, we have successfully developed a flexible, lightweight, and washable strain moisture sensor textile fabric by printing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate/polydimethylsiloxane-b-polyethylene oxide (PEDOT:PSS/PDMS) conductive polymer composite on knitted cotton fabric. A 60.2 kΩ/sq surface resistance has been obtained at 30% ratio of PDMS to PEDOT:PSS 0.012 g/cm2...

Remote sensing of soil moisture is a powerful and inexpensive way to map surface soil moisture for a range of applications, including weather prediction, water resources management and irrigation practices. Passive microwave sensors operating at L-band wavelength have shown the most potential for this task. However, this technology faces some major challenges, mostly related to correct interpre...

The upcoming deployment of satellite-based microwave sensors designed specifically to retrieve surface soil moisture represents an important milestone in efforts to develop hydrologic applications for remote sensing observations. However, typical measurement depths of microwave-based soil moisture retrievals are generally considered too shallow (top 2–5 cm of the soil column) for many important...

awareness of the effects of water deficit on quality and quantity yield of orange is essential for product managing at water shortage conditions. in this regard, present study was conducted in an orange garden of babol area in 2011 in a completely randomized design with 5 treatments and 5 replications. experiment treatments included full irrigation (fi), regulated deficit irrigation (rdi) and p...