Engineering Commons^™

High-Resolution Soil Moisture Estimation Using Ascat, Kevin Tew, Michael Scott

Journal of Undergraduate Research

NASA’s Decadal Survey emphasizes the importance of soil moisture measurements, citing their significance in predicting natural hazards and the role of soil moisture levels in the water and carbon cycles [1]. Soil moisture estimates are used for a variety of applications including drought detection, flood and landslide forecasts, crop yield monitoring, and rain precipitation models [1]–[4]. Orbiting sensors provide an effective way to measure soil moisture globally because measurements of each area can be taken at a relatively high revisit frequency (typically one to two days). These sensors are generally able to measure soil moisture parameters despite cloud coverage and, …