Soil moisture extraction in sparse vegetated area using SAR and TM data

This study uses SAR/TM synergy to investigate the possibility of extracting soil moisture of vegetated areas. When the differential backscattering was used (/spl sigma//sup 0//sub wet/-/spl sigma//sup 0//sub dry/), surface roughness was greatly reduced and the change in backscattering was primarily related to soil moisture and vegetation density. By modeling the /spl Delta//spl sigma//sup 0//spl sim/NDVI relationship, soil moisture can be estimated with SAR and TM imagery. With and IEM model for bare soils, and soil moisture measurements, the authors deduced a series of moisture curves changing with /spl Delta//spl sigma//sup 0/ and NDVI. The range of soil moisture in test area is between 2.0% and 37.0%.