scholarly journals Accuracies of Soil Moisture Estimations Using a Semi-Empirical Model over Bare Soil Agricultural Croplands from Sentinel-1 SAR Data

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil Kumar Hoskera ◽  
Giovanni Nico ◽  
Mohammed Irshad Ahmed ◽  
Anthony Whitbread

This study describes a semi-empirical model developed to estimate volumetric soil moisture ( ϑ v ) in bare soils during the dry season (March–May) using C-band (5.42 GHz) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery acquired from the Sentinel-1 European satellite platform at a 20 m spatial resolution. The semi-empirical model was developed using backscatter coefficient ( σ ° dB ) and in situ soil moisture collected from Siruguppa taluk (sub-district) in the Karnataka state of India. The backscatter coefficients σ V V 0 and σ V H 0 were extracted from SAR images at 62 geo-referenced locations where ground sampling and volumetric soil moisture were measured at a 10 cm (0–10 cm) depth using a soil core sampler and a standard gravimetric method during the dry months (March–May) of 2017 and 2018. A linear equation was proposed by combining σ V V 0 and σ V H 0 to estimate soil moisture. Both localized and generalized linear models were derived. Thirty-nine localized linear models were obtained using the 13 Sentinel-1 images used in this study, considering each polarimetric channel Co-Polarization (VV) and Cross-Polarization (VH) separately, and also their linear combination of VV + VH. Furthermore, nine generalized linear models were derived using all the Sentinel-1 images acquired in 2017 and 2018; three generalized models were derived by combining the two years (2017 and 2018) for each polarimetric channel; and three more models were derived for the linear combination of σ V V 0 and σ V H 0 . The above set of equations were validated and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was 0.030 and 0.030 for 2017 and 2018, respectively, and 0.02 for the combined years of 2017 and 2018. Both localized and generalized models were compared with in situ data. Both kind of models revealed that the linear combination of σ V V 0 + σ V H 0 showed a significantly higher R2 than the individual polarimetric channels.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhilash Singh ◽  
Kumar Gaurav ◽  
Shashi Kumar

<p>We evaluate the potential of Sentinel-1A & 1B satellite images to estimate the volumetric soil moisture content over an alluvial fan of the Kosi River in the North Bihar, India. Over this region, only dual polarised images (VH and VV) are available. However, the existing backscattering models (i.e., Dubois, Oh and IEM models) uses quad polarised (VV, VH, HH and HV) images for the estimation of soil permittivity and surface roughness over the bareland. To overcome the constraint of dual polarised data, we eliminated one of the unknown (i.e. surface roughness) by developing a regression model between the in-situ measured surface roughness and the ratio of backscatter values (VH/VV) in dB.  In a field campaign in the Kosi Fan from December 10-21, 2019, we have measured surface roughness, soil temperature, soil pH and soil moisture at 78 different location using the pin-meter, soil survey instrument (soil temperature and pH), and Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR) respectively. The average surface roughness and soil moisture varies between (0.61 - 5.45) cm and (0.12-0.53) m<sup>3</sup>/m<sup>3</sup> respectively in the study area.</p><p>Further, using the surface roughness we modify the Dubois, Oh and IEM models. This reduces the number of unknowns in the models from two to one; the soil permittivity. We compute the soil permittivity from the inversion of the existing backscattering models. Finally, we use the permittivity values in the Top’s model to estimate the volumetric soil moisture in the study area. Our initial results exhibit a good correlation (R<sup>2</sup> = 0.85) to the in-situ measured soil moisture.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Schönbrodt-Stitt ◽  
Nima Ahmadian ◽  
Markus Kurtenbach ◽  
Christopher Conrad ◽  
Nunzio Romano ◽  
...  

Reliable near-surface soil moisture (θ) information is crucial for supporting risk assessment of future water usage, particularly considering the vulnerability of agroforestry systems of Mediterranean environments to climate change. We propose a simple empirical model by integrating dual-polarimetric Sentinel-1 (S1) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) C-band single-look complex data and topographic information together with in-situ measurements of θ into a random forest (RF) regression approach (10-fold cross-validation). Firstly, we compare two RF models' estimation performances using either 43 SAR parameters (θNovSAR) or the combination of 43 SAR and 10 terrain parameters (θNovSAR+Terrain). Secondly, we analyze the essential parameters in estimating and mapping θ for S1 overpasses twice a day (at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m.) in a high spatiotemporal (17 × 17 m; 6 days) resolution. The developed site-specific calibration-dependent model was tested for a short period in November 2018 in a field-scale agroforestry environment belonging to the “Alento” hydrological observatory in southern Italy. Our results show that the combined SAR + terrain model slightly outperforms the SAR-based model (θNovSAR+Terrain with 0.025 and 0.020 m3 m−3, and 89% compared to θNovSAR with 0.028 and 0.022 m3 m−3, and 86% in terms of RMSE, MAE, and R2). The higher explanatory power for θNovSAR+Terrain is assessed with time-variant SAR phase information-dependent elements of the C2 covariance and Kennaugh matrix (i.e., K1, K6, and K1S) and with local (e.g., altitude above channel network) and compound topographic attributes (e.g., wetness index). Our proposed methodological approach constitutes a simple empirical model aiming at estimating θ for rapid surveys with high accuracy. It emphasizes potentials for further improvement (e.g., higher spatiotemporal coverage of ground-truthing) by identifying differences of SAR measurements between S1 overpasses in the morning and afternoon.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thanabalan Palanisamy ◽  
Vidhya R

The study discusses the soil moisture estimation using dual polarimetric RISAT-1. The semi-empirical approach of Modified Dubois Model (MDM) derived by (SrinivasaRao 2013) is worked out using (σ ̊HH) and (σ ̊HV) for soil moisture estimation using dual polarimetric backscattering image. IRS LISS IV data have been used to analyze the site suitability of different land use/cover types. The retrieval of backscattering coefficient values (σ ̊) from SAR is the common principle factor for soil moisture estimation. The surface roughness was measured in the selected sample location, for which the same backscattering values derived from the SAR is linearly correlated showing r2 = 0.93. The estimated surface roughness is used for retrieval of dielectric constant using MDM. The dielectric constant derived from MDM in combination with the Topps model proposed by (Topp 1980), is used to derive satellite-based soil moisture estimation. Linear regression analysis was performed, and the soil moisture derived from SAR are well correlated with the volumetric soil moisture showing the value of r2 = 0.63. 


2020 ◽  
Vol 02 ◽  
Author(s):  
RM Garcia ◽  
WF Vieira-Junior ◽  
JD Theobaldo ◽  
NIP Pini ◽  
GM Ambrosano ◽  
...  

Objective: To evaluate color and roughness of bovine enamel exposed to dentifrices, dental bleaching with 35% hydrogen peroxide (HP), and erosion/staining by red wine. Methods: Bovine enamel blocks were exposed to: artificial saliva (control), Oral-B Pro-Health (stannous fluoride with sodium fluoride, SF), Sensodyne Repair & Protect (bioactive glass, BG), Colgate Pro-Relief (arginine and calcium carbonate, AR), or Chitodent (chitosan, CHI). After toothpaste exposure, half (n=12) of the samples were bleached (35% HP), and the other half were not (n=12). The color (CIE L*a* b*, ΔE), surface roughness (Ra), and scanning electron microscopy were evaluated. Color and roughness were assessed at baseline, post-dentifrice and/or -dental bleaching, and after red wine. The data were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) (ΔE) for repeated measures (Ra), followed by Tukey ́s test. The L*, a*, and b* values were analyzed by generalized linear models (a=0.05). Results: The HP promoted an increase in Ra values; however, the SF, BG, and AR did not enable this alteration. After red wine, all groups apart from SF (unbleached) showed increases in Ra values; SF and AR promoted decreases in L* values; AR demonstrated higher ΔE values, differing from the control; and CHI decreased the L* variation in the unbleached group. Conclusion: Dentifrices did not interfere with bleaching efficacy of 35% HP. However, dentifrices acted as a preventive agent against surface alteration from dental bleaching (BG, SF, and AR) or red wine (SF). Dentifrices can decrease (CHI) or increase (AR and SF) staining by red wine.


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