This research examines the simultaneous retrieval of surface soil moisture and salt concentrations using hyperspectral reflectance data in an arid environment. We conducted laboratory and outdoor field experiments in which we examined three key soil variables: soil moisture, salt and texture (silty loam, clay and silty clay). The soil moisture content models for multiple textures (M_SMC models)...

Soil particle size distribution PSD i.e., clay, silt, sand, and rock contents information is one of critical factors for understanding water cycle since it affects almost all of water cycle processes, e.g., drainage, runoff, soil moisture, evaporation, and evapotranspiration. With information about soil PSD, we can estimate almost all soil hydraulic properties e.g., saturated soil moisture, fie...

Red-backed salamanders were observed to see how they colonized the forest edges of northern forests. By quantifying the surrounding abiotic factors, we predicted favorable abiotic factors. We set up 27 artificial habitats in a cedar swamp, mature hardwood forest, and a plot that was burned in 1936 at the forest edge, middle and interior. Soil and air temperature, light intensity, humidity, soil...

In cold climate regions winter conditions significantly influence the performance of stormwater infiltration devices. Frozen soil and water storage by snow changes their operation. In this paper winter operation of a grassed infiltration swale was investigated using on-site and laboratory measurements. The field investigation of a grassed swale at a parking place in an Alpine region showed that...

Climate change poses significant threats to biodiversity, but some species may be able to escape its effects in small locations with unusual and stable climates (microrefugia). However, there are still great uncertainties about where microrefugia are located, and the exact role that moisture plays in buffering extreme temperatures. In this study we quantified the effects of moisture on the dist...

The flux-adjusting surface data assimilation system (FASDAS) is developed to provide continuous adjustments for initial soil moisture and temperature and for surface air temperature and water vapor mixing ratio for mesoscale models. In the FASDAS approach, surface air temperature and water vapor mixing ratio are directly assimilated by using the analyzed surface observations. Then, the differen...

This paper presents an approach to estimating soil moisture content through fitting an inverted Gaussian function to the continuum in soil spectra. The soil moisture Gaussian model (SMGM) estimates the water content by the declining reflectance in the near infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR) regions, 1.2–2.5 Am, due to the spreading of the fundamental water absorption at 2.8 Am. Convex...