[en] Microwave remote sensing of the environment strongly relies on knowledge of the soil electrical properties. In this study, we characterized organic-rich soils using remote ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and radiometer as well as resonant cavity and waveguide reference methods. Organic-rich soil samples were collected from the HOBE (Hydrological Observatory) test site in the Skjern River Catchment (Denmark) and set up at the TERENO (Terrestrial Environmental Observatories) controlled test site in Selhausen (Germany). GPR and L-band radiometer measurements were performed above the soils during two months in order to cover a wide range of soil moisture conditions. GPR data were processed using full-wave inversion based on layered media Green's functions and radiometer data were inverted using a two-stream radiative transfer model for estimating the soil electrical properties. Results were compared to reference measurements carried out at the IMS laboratory (Laboratoire de l'Intégration du Matériau au Système, France) using two different methods, i.e., the small perturbation method with resonant cavity and the waveguide method. Relatively large differences were observed between the different estimation methods for the real part of the relative dielectric permittivity, while reasonable agreement were obtained with respect to its imaginary part. This was attributed to a higher sensitivity of the real part of the relative dielectric permittivity with respect to soil samples heterogeneities. This study provided valuable insights into the electrical characterization of organic soils to improve space-borne remote sensing data products.
Jonard, François ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie ; Agrosphere (IBG-3), Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany
Demontoux, François; Laboratoire de l'Intégration du Matériau Au Système (IMS), Bordeaux, France
Bircher, Simone; Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère (CESBIO), Toulouse, France
Razafindratsima, Stephen; Laboratoire de l'Intégration du Matériau Au Système (IMS), Bordeaux, France
Schwank, Mike; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland
Weillermüller, Lutz; Agrosphere (IBG-3), Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany
Lambot, Sébastien; Earth and Life Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Wigneron, Jean-Pierre; Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), Bordeaux, France
Kerr, Yann; Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphère (CESBIO), Toulouse, France
Vereecken, Harry; Agrosphere (IBG-3), Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany
Language :
English
Title :
Electromagnetic characterization of organic-rich soils at the microwave L-band with ground-penetrating radar, radiometry and laboratory measurements
Publication date :
December 2014
Event name :
Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar
Event place :
Brussels, Belgium
Event date :
30-06-2014 => 04-07-2014
Audience :
International
Main work title :
Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar, GPR 2014
Editor :
Lambot, Sebastien
Publisher :
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
This work was supported by Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, the Laboratoire de l'lntegration du Materiau au Système (IMS), the Centre d'Etudes Spatiales de la Biosphere (CESBIO), and the Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA). The ELBARA-II radiometer was provided by TERENO funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The organic soils collected from the Skjern River Catchment in Western Danemark were provided by HOBE. S. Bircher was funded by ExpeER (Experimentation in Ecosystem Research) and S. Razafindratsima was funded by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) through Terre Ocean Surface Continentales Atmosphere (TOSCA) Programme.
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