Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data

SAR's return signal sensitivity to dielectric constant and penetration through vegetation makes it ideal for large-scale soil moisture studies. High incidence angle SAR data is especially useful for understanding crop characteristics. However, interpreting the return signal requires considering...

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Main Authors: Hari Shanker Srivastava, Thota Sivasankar, Madhuri Dilip Gavali, Parul Patel
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2024-01-01
Series:Kuwait Journal of Science
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Online Access:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2307410823001268
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author Hari Shanker Srivastava
Thota Sivasankar
Madhuri Dilip Gavali
Parul Patel
author_facet Hari Shanker Srivastava
Thota Sivasankar
Madhuri Dilip Gavali
Parul Patel
author_sort Hari Shanker Srivastava
collection DOAJ
description SAR's return signal sensitivity to dielectric constant and penetration through vegetation makes it ideal for large-scale soil moisture studies. High incidence angle SAR data is especially useful for understanding crop characteristics. However, interpreting the return signal requires considering both crop characteristics and underlying soil moisture. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the potential of high incidence angle C-band SAR data for soil moisture retrieval by incorporating effects of crop on Radar signal using water cloud model. The simulated VV backscatter from water cloud model by considering Leaf Area Index (LAI) and plant water content as vegetation descriptors has shown Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 1.28 ​dB with actual VV backscatter. Later, a two-layer feedforward neural network comprising one hidden layer with sigmoid neurons has been considered to develop retrieval models. It is observed that the ANN with input of high incidence angle C-band VV backscatter over wheat crop has soil moisture retrieval performance with correlation coefficient (R) and RMSE of 0.55 and 9.18 ​m3/m3 respectively. Another ANN model is developed to incorporate effects of crop on Radar signal by using VH backscatter, Radar Vegetation Index (RVI) and two-way attenuation factor derived from water cloud model along with VV backscatter. The overall performance of this model has been observed with R and RMSE of 0.77 and 5.81 ​m3/m3 respectively. The study results indicate that the high incidence angle SAR data may be considered for soil moisture retrieval underneath crop cover by effectively incorporating the crop effects on Radar signal. This may further extend to develop a model to extract crop biophysical parameters as well as soil moisture from Sentinel-1 SAR data.
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spelling doaj-art-506a2d0c8d534a9184f2c9792babb3572025-08-20T03:19:57ZengElsevierKuwait Journal of Science2307-41162024-01-01511100101https://doi.org/10.1016/j.kjs.2023.07.007Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR dataHari Shanker Srivastava0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4964-7596Thota Sivasankar1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2422-8731Madhuri Dilip Gavali2Parul Patel3Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, IndiaGeographic Information Systems Area, NIIT University, Neemrana, Rajasthan, IndiaIndian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, IndiaSpace Applications Centre, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, IndiaSAR's return signal sensitivity to dielectric constant and penetration through vegetation makes it ideal for large-scale soil moisture studies. High incidence angle SAR data is especially useful for understanding crop characteristics. However, interpreting the return signal requires considering both crop characteristics and underlying soil moisture. In this study, an attempt has been made to assess the potential of high incidence angle C-band SAR data for soil moisture retrieval by incorporating effects of crop on Radar signal using water cloud model. The simulated VV backscatter from water cloud model by considering Leaf Area Index (LAI) and plant water content as vegetation descriptors has shown Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 1.28 ​dB with actual VV backscatter. Later, a two-layer feedforward neural network comprising one hidden layer with sigmoid neurons has been considered to develop retrieval models. It is observed that the ANN with input of high incidence angle C-band VV backscatter over wheat crop has soil moisture retrieval performance with correlation coefficient (R) and RMSE of 0.55 and 9.18 ​m3/m3 respectively. Another ANN model is developed to incorporate effects of crop on Radar signal by using VH backscatter, Radar Vegetation Index (RVI) and two-way attenuation factor derived from water cloud model along with VV backscatter. The overall performance of this model has been observed with R and RMSE of 0.77 and 5.81 ​m3/m3 respectively. The study results indicate that the high incidence angle SAR data may be considered for soil moisture retrieval underneath crop cover by effectively incorporating the crop effects on Radar signal. This may further extend to develop a model to extract crop biophysical parameters as well as soil moisture from Sentinel-1 SAR data.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2307410823001268artificial neural networkcrop cover effectssarsentinel-1soil moisturewater cloud model
spellingShingle Hari Shanker Srivastava
Thota Sivasankar
Madhuri Dilip Gavali
Parul Patel
Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data
Kuwait Journal of Science
artificial neural network
crop cover effects
sar
sentinel-1
soil moisture
water cloud model
title Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data
title_full Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data
title_fullStr Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data
title_full_unstemmed Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data
title_short Soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle C-band Sentinel-1 SAR data
title_sort soil moisture estimation underneath crop cover using high incidence angle c band sentinel 1 sar data
topic artificial neural network
crop cover effects
sar
sentinel-1
soil moisture
water cloud model
url https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2307410823001268
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AT thotasivasankar soilmoistureestimationunderneathcropcoverusinghighincidenceanglecbandsentinel1sardata
AT madhuridilipgavali soilmoistureestimationunderneathcropcoverusinghighincidenceanglecbandsentinel1sardata
AT parulpatel soilmoistureestimationunderneathcropcoverusinghighincidenceanglecbandsentinel1sardata