A SAR soil moisture retrieval algorithm inverting the temporal changes of radar backscatter

Abstract:
This paper describes and assesses the performance of the algorithm “Soil MOisture retrieval from multi-temporal SAR data” (SMOSAR), recently developed in view of the forthcoming European Space Agency Sentinel-1mission. SMOSAR retrieves soil moisture (mv) products at moderate spatial resolution (e.g 1 km) from dense or quasi-dense (i.e. revisit time within 1-2 weeks) time series of SAR data by inverting the temporal changes of the radar backscatter. The algorithm assessment is based on time series of ASAR Wide Swath data over three agricultural sites in Northern and Southern Europe. Results indicate that mv can be retrieved with an accuracy of approximately 6.0% m³/m³.