Mapping shallow soil moisture profiles at the field scale using full-waveform inversion of ground penetrating radar data

Full-waveform inversions were applied to retrieve surface, two-layered and continuous soil moisture profiles from ground penetrating radar (GPR) data acquired in an 11-ha agricultural field situated in the loess belt area in central Belgium. The radar system consisted of a vector network analyzer combined with an off-ground horn antenna operating in the frequency range 200–2000 MHz. The GPR system was computer controlled and synchronized with a differential GPS for real-time data acquisition. Several inversion strategies were also tested using numerical experiments, which in particular demonstrated the potentiality to reconstruct simplified two-layered configurations from more complex, continuous dielectric profiles as prevalent in the environment. The surface soil moisture map obtained assuming a one-layered model showed a global moisture pattern mainly explained by the topography while local moisture patterns indicated a line effect. Two-layered and profile inversions provided consistent estimates with respect to each other and field observations, showing significant moisture increases with depth. However, some discrepancies were observed between the measured and modeled GPR data in the higher frequency ranges, mainly due to surface roughness effects which were not accounted for. The proposed GPR method and inversion strategies showed great promise for high-resolution, real-time mapping of soil moisture at the field scale.

Research Highlights
► Soil moisture was mapped by a proximal GPR in an 11-ha field at high resolution.
► Two-layered and profile model inversions characterized soil moisture profiles.
► Reconstructed soil moisture profiles were coherent with in-situ visual observations.
► Error sources of the proposed GPR technique in field acquisition were discussed.