Inter-Comparison of Proximal Near-Surface Soil Moisture Measurement Techniques

Precision agriculture is experiencing substantial development through the improved availability of cost-effective instruments for data collection. This includes ground-based proximal sensing technologies that are able to compete with satellite and aircraft observation systems, due low operational costs, high flexibility, spatial resolution. article was therefore designed compare performance multiple systems mounted on a smart buggy platform. A number were then evaluated intercompared their accuracy in retrieving resolution near-surface soil moisture. The sensors tested included an L -band microwave radiometer (ELBARA III), global navigation system reflectometer sensor (LARGO), electromagnetic induction (EM38). Data collected during fifth Soil Moisture Active Passive Experiment (SMAPEx-5) Yanco, NSW, Australia, September 2015. Observations from each converted surface moisture values which turn against reference measurements obtained by xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in situ measurements. here have been individually assessed many other studies, but within different regions environments including condition, local weather, observing height, size footprint, etc. Consequently, this has used single platform intercompare be concurrently. Results indicated achieved best average RMSE xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">R found 0.055 cm 3 /cm 0.68 ELBARA III, 0.084 0.51 LARGO, 0.090 0.32 EM38.