Vehicle Mounted L-Band Radiometer for Remote Sensing of Turfgrass Soil Moisture

A second-generation portable L-band radiometer is presented for use in turfgrass management applications and golf course soil moisture mapping. The "turfRad" has been optimized for ease-of-use and for the conditions in operational turfgrass management. This is the first known use of a vehicle-mounted L-band radiometer for turfgrass soil moisture mapping for irrigation decision-making. Preliminary results, including dual-polarization brightness temperatures and retrieved soil moisture, are presented. The single-parameter soil moisture retrieval using the Tau-Omega emission model with constant vegetation optical depth is chosen due to the high level of vegetation uniformity in the fairway areas.