Using 19 years of Chinese soil moisture data from 1981-1999, we evaluate soil moisture in three reanalysis outputs: ERA40, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis (R-1), and NCEP/DOE reanalysis 2 (R-2) over China. R-2 shows better interannual variability and seasonal patterns of soil moisture than R-1 as the result of incorporation of observed precipitation. ERA40 produces a better mean value of soil moisture for...

In the framework of the European Soil Thematic Strategy, and the associated preparation of a directive on the protection and sustainable use of soil, landslides were recognized as a soil threat requiring specific strategies for risk assessment and management. The criteria for harmonized risk area delineation proposed by the Soil Information Working Group (SIWG) of the European Soil Bureau Netwo...

Freeze-thaw (FT) and moisture dynamics within the soil active layer are critical elements of boreal, arctic and alpine ecosystems, and environmental change assessments. We evaluated the potential for detecting dielectric changes within different soil layers using combined Land P-band radar remote sensing as a prerequisite for detecting FT and moisture profile changes within the soil active laye...

Since the structure and foundation are built on soil, the soil is the major platform by which seismic vibrations are transmitted to the structure, and has noticeable effects on the response and behavior of structure during earthquakes. In this research, the recently introduced Performance-based plastic design (PBPD) and its modified Performance-based plastic design (MPBPD) method in which soil ...

For several years passive microwave observations have been used to retrieve soil moisture from the Earth’s surface. Low frequency observations have the most sensitivity to soil moisture, therefore the current Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) and future Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) satellite missions observe the Earth’s surface in the L-band frequency. In the past, several sate...

Distributions of many chemical, physical, and microbiological properties of soils appear to be lognormal. Several conflicting recommendations exist in the soil science and statistical literature on how to best estimate the population mean, variance, and coefficient of variation of lognormally distributed data. We chose to determine with statistical certainty which of the following three methods...

Many traumatic upper body injuries to deminers are caused by debris generated by anti-personnel (AP) blast mines. This study better characterizes the soil ejecta threat from buried anti-personnel mines and provides an improved evaluation of light upper body protection systems by relating the threat to resultant damage to soft tissue simulants. For each tested soil type, ejecta characterization ...

1 Institute of Soil Science and Land Evaluation, Univ. of Hohenheim, Emil-Wolff-Strasse 27, 70599 Stuttgart, Germany 2 Ludwig-Maximilians Univ., Dept. of Geography, Luisenstr. 37, 80333 Munich, Germany 3 Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Postfach 100164, 07701 Jena, Germany 4 Vegetation Ecology, Techn. Univ. of Munich, Am Hochanger 6, 85350 Freising, Germany 5 Helmholtz Center Munich, G...