Accuracy of soil moisture determination by means of passive microwave remote sensing method. Modeling and experiments

Some results of passive microwave remote sensing application for the determination of surface (20-30 cm layer) soil moisture and general water content in 1 m layer are presented. Model estimation of accuracy dependence on different soil parameters, vegetation biomass, errors of calibration, etc. are given. Results of comparison between remote sensing data and contact data, obtained in different regions are analyzed. The algorithms for data processing were elaborated in Institute of Radioengineering and Electronics Russian Academy of Sciences, and developed in Institute of Geoinformatics Ltd., software and microwave radiometers in centimeter and decimeter wavebands for experiments were elaborated in Institute of Geoinformatics Ltd.