Compact-Polarimetric SAR decompositions for soil moisture retrievals using Radarsat Constellation Mission data

This study investigates the compact-polarimetric SAR decompositions to retrieve soil moisture during the vegetation growth seasons in Canada. We analyzed and modeled the RADARSAT Constellation Mission (RCM) data acquired in 2020 in terms of station observations from Real-Time In-Situ Soil Monitoring for Agriculture (RISMA). The compact-polarimetric decompositions such as $m-\delta, m-\chi$ and Random Volume Over Ground (RVOG) were evaluated to separate the vegetation volume scattering and soil surface scattering components. The preliminary results show promising potential of the RCM compact-polarimetric decompositions to capture the increased volume scattering power and weak dihedral scattering power. The surface scattering power was impacted by vegetation attenuation and soil moisture.