Soil moisture retrieval using RADARSAT-2 and HJ-1 CCD data in grassland

A synergistic method of SAR and optical remote sensing data for retrieval of soil moisture was developed in this paper. Vegetation coverage, which can be easily estimated from optical data, was combined in the backscattering model. The total backscattering was divided into the amount attributed to areas covered with vegetation and that attributed to areas of bare soil. Backscattering coefficients were simulated using the established backscattering model. Then, soil moisture was estimated using the inverted model. The results showed that the predicted soil moisture correlated with the measured soil moisture (R
²
= 0.7075, RMSE = 3.3219 m
²
/m
²
).