Title
Soil moisture estimation using synergy of optical, SAR and topographic data with Gaussian Process Regression
Abstract
In this work we address the synergy of optical, SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and topographic data in soil moisture retrieval over an Alpine area. As estimation technique, we consider Gaussian Process Regression (GPR). The test area is located in South Tyrol, Italy where the main land types are meadows and pastures. Time series of ASAR Wide Swath - SAR, optical, topographic and ancillary data (meteorological information and snow cover maps) acquired repetitively in 2010 were examined. Regarding optical data, we used both, daily MODIS reflectances, and daily NDVI, interpolated from the 16-day MODIS composite. Slope, elevation and aspect were extracted from a 2.5 m DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and resampled to 10 m. Daily soil moisture measurements were collected in the three fixed stations (two located in meadows and one located in pasture). The snow maps were used to mask the points covered by snow. The best performance was obtained by adding MODIS band 6 at 1640 nm to SAR and DEM features. The corresponding coefficient of determination, R2, was equal to 0.848, and the root mean square error, RMSE, to 5.4 % Vol. Compared to the case when no optical data were considered, there was an increase of ca. 0.05 in R2 and a decrease in RMSE of ca. 0.7 % Vol. This work showed that the joint use of NDVI or water absorption reflectance with SAR and topographic data can improve the estimation of soil moisture in specific Alpine area and that GPR is an effective method for estimation.
Year
DOI
Venue
2014
10.1117/12.2072828
Proceedings of SPIE
Keywords
Field
DocType
Soil moisture retrieval,Gaussian Proccess Regression,MODIS reflectance,Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR),topographic features
Kriging,Ground-penetrating radar,Topographic map,Synthetic aperture radar,Remote sensing,Digital elevation model,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index,Elevation,Geography,Snow
Conference
Volume
ISSN
Citations 
9243
0277-786X
0
PageRank 
References 
Authors
0.34
0
11
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
jelena stamenkovic1182.21
Claudia Notarnicola216640.15
nadine spindler300.34
Cuozzo, G.4174.27
g bertoldi500.34
s della chiesa610.72
Georg Niedrist7184.28
f greifeneder8245.69
Devis Tuia91715101.88
maurice borgeaud1011816.94
J.-Ph. Thiran11111.54