ASSESSMENT OF THE SOIL MOISTURE ESTIMATION AT THE KOREA PENINSULA: CASE STUDY FOR AGRICULTURE AND MOUNTAINOUS AREAS

Abstract

The remote sensing technology is effective method for soil moisture observation. However the main problem of the remote sensing data is coarse spatial resolution. [1] In that point, Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is promising technology for soil moisture estimation because of its high resolution. The variation of the backscattering coefficient from the SAR data is mainly used in the algorithm for estimation of soil moisture on the surface (0-5cm). Then the research for estimation of soil moisture using SAR images has been conducted. But the study area of the research were mostly on the bare soil or sparsely vegetated area. It is difficult to estimate soil moisture on the forestry area with dense vegetation and rough surface. Then, Korea peninsula has mountainous topography over than 60%. Those mountain in Korea has quite dense vegetation on summer and fall season. Also it has a rough surface which has a steep slope. So for the soil moisture estimation on the Korea peninsula using SAR images, estimation on mountainous area should be procured the accuracy. That is why the objective of this study is establishment of the base for producing high resolution soil moisture data on Korea peninsula.