Wuhan University Journal of Natural Sciences

In this paper, a new approach was introduced to estimate surface soil moisture using alternating polarization (AP) data of advanced synthetic aperture radar (ASAR). First, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) backscattering characteristic of bare surface at C band was simulated using advanced integrated equation model (AIEM), and four bare surface backscattering models with different polarization were established. In addition, with simultaneous equations of the former four formulas, the surface roughness was eliminated, and models used to estimate soil moisture on bare surface were derived from simulated multipolarization and multiangle ASAR-AP data. Based on these, the best combination of polarization and incident angle was determined. Finally, soil moisture in the middle stream of the Heihe River Basin was estimated. The field measured data demonstrated that the proposed method was capable of retrieving surface soil moisture for both sparse grassland and homogeneous farmland area.