Robust inversion technique for retrieving soil moisture from multi-polarised backscatter of bare surface

Abstract

A robust inversion technique using a genetic algorithm (GA)for retrieving soil moisture content from the multi-polarised radar data of bare soil surfaces is presented. This inversion technique employs a semi-empirical polarimetric backscattering model as a cost function for the GA. Good agreement is found between the values estimated by this inversion technique and those measured in situ.