A fully instrumented air conditioning laboratory unit capable of controlling drying air temperature and humidity integrated with an instantaneous weighing thin layer drying system was used to investigate the thin layer drying behavior and desorption equilibrium moisture content of canola (Brassica napus L.). To this aim, freshly harvested canola samples with moisture content of about 12±0.5% (d...

The COsmic-ray Soil Moisture Observing System (COSMOS) rover may be useful for validating satellite-based estimates of near-surface soil moisture, but the accuracy with which the rover can measure 0to 5-cm soil moisture has not been previously determined. Our objectives were to calibrate and validate a COSMOS rover for mapping 0to 5-cm soil moisture at spatial scales suitable for evaluating sat...

Moisture content of grain is one of the important parameters always considered when deciding the quality and price of grain, at the stage of harvesting, storage, processing and marketing. Grain having excess moisture content, if stored for long duration, will spoil due to insect/fungus infestation. Portable, field usable, and easy-to-use direct moisture (%) display Grain Moisture Meter is a nec...

Soil moisture is a key variable for the water and energy exchanges at the land surface. The determination of soil moisture dynamics from space is one of the most prominent, but also most challenging applications for recent active microwave sensor systems. Since the launch of ENVISAT ASAR, more than 4 years of data is available for the retrieval of soil moisture information. The wide area covera...

this study was carried out to determine some mechanical properties of barley seed including deformation, rapture force, rapture energy and toughness as a function of moisture content (10.5%, 12.5%, 14.5% , 16.5%, db), loading rate (5, 15, 25, 35 mm.min-1) and grain size (small, medium, large). tests were performed at 7 replications by the means of a factorial base plot experiment. the results s...

the presented study shows a simple way for optimization of extrusion process, which was used for deterioration of cyanogenic glycosides – antinutritive components of linseed, with minimum damage of essential alpha-linolenic acid (ala) at the same time. extrusion of the material was done on a laboratory single screw extruder. content of hydrogen cyanide (hcn) as a measurement of cyanogenic glyco...

The water relations play a fundamental role in seed comprehension of biology. In order to describe the process of drying and the effect on water activity, which controls biological change in storage, a sound knowledge of the relationship between equilibrium moisture content (EMC) and water activity/equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) is essential. The relationship between the total moisture con...

This research investigates the interannual variability of soil moisture as related to large-scale climate variability and also evaluates the spatial and temporal variability of modeled deep layer (40–140 cm) soil moisture in the Upper Colorado River Basin (UCRB). A three layers hydrological model VIC-3L (Variable Infiltration Capacity Model – 3 layers) was used to generate soil moisture in the ...

Active microwave remote sensing observations hold the potential for efficient and reliable mapping of spatial soil moisture distributions. However, soil moisture retrievals from microwave remote sensing techniques are typically complex because of the inherent difficulty in characterizing the interactions among land surface parameters that contribute to the retrieval process. Therefore adequate ...