Soil moisture estimation by using multipolarization SAR image

It was shown that the backscatter coefficient of HV cross-polarization is more accurate than HH or VV co-polarization to be used in the proposed Improved Water Cloud Model (IWCM) model. Also, experiments showed that the co-polarization ratio σHH/σVV has high correlation with Vegetation Water Content (VWC). Therefore, in order to make the model independent from ground measurements, the ratio was used alternatively in the proposed IWCM model. The analysis on the IWCM model showed a meaningful improvement on soil moisture estimation accuracy.