Determining the moisture of the soil and of the vegetation is important in determining the health of the vegetation, and can even be used as a component in weather prediction. Once the image is accurately classified, algorithms that are specialized for each class are applied to estimate the moisture. Some examples are shown below.



Inversion of vegetation water mass from radar measurements. A power law relation was developed for the C-band cross-pol to VV ratio with respect to the measured and interpolated vegetation water mass. This simple power law relation is inverted to show the extraction of vegetation water mass from that radar data.

Inversion of soil moisture from radar measurements. A power law relation was developed for the L-band to C-band cross-pol ratio with respect to the measured soil moistures. This simple power law relation is inverted to show the extraction of soil moisture from that radar data.


Some of our publications in this area:

• Ulaby, F. T., Microwave Radiometers, in Vol. I, Manual of Remote Sensing; and "Active Microwave Determinations of Soil Moisture," in Vol. II, Manual of Remote Sensing, American Society of Photogrammetry, Falls Church, Virginia, January 1975.
  
• Oh, Y., K. Sarabandi, and F.T. Ulaby,``An empirical model and an inversion technique for radar scattering from bare soil surfaces,'' IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sensing., vol. 30, no. 2, 370-381, March 1992. [Abstract] [umSoilinv.ps(0MB)]
  
• Dobson, M. C., F. T. Ulaby, Mapping Soil Moisture Distribution With Imaging Radar, in Vol IV, Manual of Remote Sensing, American Society of Photogrammetry, Falls Church, Virginia, 1995.
  
  
• Peplinski, N.R., F.T. Ulaby, and M.C. Dobson, Dielectric Properties of Soils in the 0.3-1.3 GHz Range, submitted for publication to IEEE Trans. on Geosci. and Rem. Sens., September 1994. [Abstract] [umSoildiel.ps(0MB)]