Detecting and Calculating the Soil Moisture Using Microwave Imagery(Case Study: Miyankale, Mazandaran)

Abstract

Almost one third of the earth is covered by soil, which has several essential parameters. The soil moisture<br />content is one of the essential parameters. The current research calculates the soil moisture content. There<br />are known methods to calculate soil moisture; however, a new method has been chosen for this research.<br />Microwave imagery is a novel appropriate way to detect and calculate the amount of moisture in soil. The<br />SENTINEL-1 with SAR sensor has been a good satellite for research purpose. The microwaves sent by<br />the satellite to the earth receives the backscatters which has been directly related to the amount of<br />moisture. Thus four images were obtained at different time intervals of the year; 21st November 2015, 1st<br />May 2016, 5th June 2016 and 29th September 2016. The study area of Miyankale is covered by four<br />images. Furthermore, to calculate the moisture in Miyankale which was done by another method the<br />results were finally compared with the percentage measured by satellite imagery. The accuracy of satellite<br />data is confirmed by measuring the soil moisture by two different methods. The coefficient of<br />determination R2 has been chosen to compare the data and check the microwave imagery. The<br />R2coefficient is able to compare two independent data. The R2 coefficient is 0.82, 0.82, 0.78 and 0.81 for<br />different time periods. The R2 ranges from 0 to 1, as the R2 values are closer to 1 the moisture obtained<br />from SAR images is confirmed