The usefulness of L-band radiometer observations for the retrieval of near-surface soil moisture has already been demonstrated in many studies. Unfortunately, the ability to estimate soil moisture from these remotely sensed observations is hampered by the infeasibility to characterize the roughness of the soil surface. Given the difficulty to measure in situ soil roughness parameters, improved ...

drought is a climatological hazard and is a part of the climate of a region. this climatological phenomenon has some properties that distinguish it from other natural disasters. drought is a gradual phenomenon and when the amount of moisture and precipitation become less than normal value in a certain period, its damages are non- structural in this condition and it is said that drought has occu...

Ecosystem respiration (ER) was measured with the eddy covariance technique in 14 forest ecosystems in the Upper Great Lakes Region during the growing seasons of 2002 and 2003. The response of ER to soil temperature and moisture was analyzed using empirical models. On average, ER was higher in the intermediate and young than in the mature stands, and higher in hardwood than in conifer stands. Th...

In the present work, we present a new formulation for the estimation of the soil moisture in the root zone based on the measured value of soil moisture at the surface. The method sheds lights on the relationship between surface and root zone soil moisture. It derives from a simplified form of the soil water balance equation and provides a closed form of the relationship between the root zone an...

The world’s first satellite dedicated to soil moisture measurement was launched by the European Space Agency on 2nd November 2009. One objective of this Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission is to obtain global near-surface (top ~5 cm) soil moisture every 2 to 3 days with a target accuracy of 0.04 m/m. To achieve this goal, the Microwave Imaging Radiometer with Aperture Synthesis (MIR...

because of the scarcity of in situ measurements, estimation of soil temperature by other means is very indispensable, as for irrigation management and scheduling when in different field conditions. so far, many regression models have been developed for an estimation of soil temperature, using meteorological data under bare soil. throughout this study, the performance of coup simulation model an...

With the launch of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission on 2 November 2009, there is a new opportunity for global near-surface soil moisture mapping from space [1-2]. Along with its innovative sensor design, a 2-dimensional array of L-band passive microwave radiometers distributed on a Y-shaped synthetic aperture antenna, a new generation of retrieva...

Thermal remote sensing of soil moisture in vineyards is a challenge. The grass-covered soil, in addition to a standing grape canopy, create complex patterns of heating and cooling and increase the surface temperature variability between vine rows. In this study, we evaluate the strength of relationships between soil moisture, mechanical resistance and thermal inertia calculated from the drop of...

Subseasonal-to-seasonal (S2S) weather forecasting has improved in recent years, thanks partly to better representation of physical variables in models. For instance, realistic initializations of snow and soil moisture in models yield enhanced predictability on S2S time scales. Snow depth and soil moisture also mediate month-to-month persistence of near-surface air temperature. Here the role of ...

Pesticide volatilization from agricultural soils is one of the main pathways in which pesticides are dispersed in the environment and affects ecosystems including human welfare. Thus, it is necessary to have accurate knowledge of the various physical and chemical mechanisms that affect volatilization rates from field soils. A verification of the influence of soil moisture modeling on the simula...