Determination of soil moisture distribution from impedance and gravimetric measurements

Journal Article · Mon Nov 30 04:00:00 EST 1992 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/92JD01450· OSTI ID:6285031

Ungar, S G ^[1]; Layman, R; Campbell, J E; Walsh, J ^[2]; McKim, H J ^[3]

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1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
2. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States)
3. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab., Hanover, NH (United States)

This work is part of the First International Satellite Land Surface Climatology Project (ISLSCP) Field Experiment (FIFE), an international land-surface-atmosphere experiment aimed at improving the way climate models represent energy, water, heat, and carbon exchanges, and improving the utilization of satellite based remote sensing to monitor such parameters. This paper reports on information about soil moisture gained from the use of radio frequency (10MHz) soil moisture probes. The probes were of a design developed at Dartmouth College, and work by measuring the complex impedance of the soil, where dry soil typically has a dielectric constant of 2 to 4, water has a value of 80. Measurements were taken at five fixed sites across the FIFE plot, and correlated with gravimetric samples from the same areas. In addition these probes were used to sample along transects flown by airborne push broom microwave radiometer (PBMR) flights, to compare with their remote sampling results.

• OSTI ID: 6285031
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States) Vol. 97:D17; ISSN JGREA2; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540220* -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
DESIGN
ELECTRIC IMPEDANCE
ELECTRIC MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
GRAVIMETRIC ANALYSIS
IMPEDANCE
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MOISTURE
PROBES
QUANTITATIVE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS
SOILS