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Project Code [2006-PhD-S-24]
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Project title
Active Microwave Remote Sensing of Soil Moisture
Primary Funding Agency
Environmental Protection Agency
Co-Funding Organisation(s)
n/a
Lead Organisation
University College Cork (UCC)
Lead Applicant
Padraig Whelan
Project Abstract
The amount of water stored in the soil is a key parameter for the energy and mass fluxes at the land surface and is of fundamental importance to many agricultural meteorological biological and biogeochemical processes. The work presented in this thesis investigates the use of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to characterise near-surface soil moisture content at both the field and catchment scale over agricultural areas in Ireland. In particular the research assesses 1) the inter-annual and seasonal relationship between ASAR Wide Swath Mode (WSM) backscatter and variations in surface soil moisture over grasslands 2) the applicability of backscatter intensity change (0) and interferometric coherence () thresholding in facilitating soil moisture change detection in agricultural fields and 3) whether C- and L-band Differential Interferometric SAR (DInSAR) can be used for soil moisture change detection. Results highlight the value of merging complementary information derived from both the intensity and phase of the backscattered signal to improve the reliability of the relationship between radar backscatter and soil moisture content and also support the hypothesis that a soil moisture phase contribution exists within differential interferograms covering agricultural areas which may have implications for standard DInSAR analysis
Grant Approved
�79,650.00
Research Hub
Natural Environment
Research Theme
Soils and Land-Use
Initial Projected Completion Date
14/09/2011