Soil moisture retrieval under vegetation using dual polarized PALSAR data

Disturbing effects caused by vegetation and surface roughness are major impediments to accurate quantitative retrievals of soil moisture from SAR. In this study we use PALSAR FBD images to investigate the potential of dual polarized L-band data to derive information on biomass and surface roughness. In correlation analyses between radar observables and in-situ measurements high sensitivities towards surface roughness and crop biomass could be ascertained. Based on these findings, we estimate surface roughness ks and vegetation biomass. The good quality of the estimates allows correcting the backscattering coefficients for the surface roughness and vegetation effects. The results give a promising outlook in terms of the possibility to develop an operational soil moisture retrieval model for PALSAR data collected in the FBD mode.