Soil moisture change detection model for slightly rough surface based on interferometric phase

Abstract

We propose a model for soil moisture change detection using phase information of synthetic aperture radar data. It is expected to be applied for drought monitoring over grasslands in north China. This model is developed from the coherent scattering model, which was originally studied for random oriented volume over ground scattering. Compared to the conventional water content estimation methods employing amplitude information, the methods based on phase information have advantages over change detection. In particular, the phases caused by topography can be removed by the use of external digital elevation model data with high accuracy. Simulations are presented to show the phase sensitivity on soil moisture variations, as well as soil moisture changes that can be feasibly inverted under different conditions of system phase accuracy and incidence angle. Then the inversion scheme is given on the basis of the proposed model. Finally, a relevant experiment in the anechoic chamber was implemented, in which good agreement is achieved between the model computations and the measurements. The results are discussed considering the practical limitations of potential applications.