Preliminary results of estimating soil moisture over bare soil using full-polarimetric ALOS-2 data

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging system is one of the most effective way for Earth observation. The aim of this study is to present the preliminary results about estimating soil moisture using L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. Full-polarimetric (HH, HV, VV, VH) ALOS-2 data, acquired on 22.04.2016 with the incidence angle of 30.4°, were used in the study. Simultaneously with the SAR acquisition, in-situ soil moisture samples over bare agricultural lands were collected and evaluated using gravimetric method. Backscattering coefficients for all polarizations were obtained and linear regression analysis was carried out with in situ moisture measurements. The best correlation coefficient was observed with VV polarization. Cross-polarized backscattering coefficients were not so sensitive to soil moisture content. In the study, it was observed that soil moisture maps can be retrieved with the accuracy about 14% (RMSE).