Determining soil moisture with Sentinel-1 image

Soil moisture is vital for agricultural practices, climate change, erosion, and water management issues. Thus, monitoring and spatial distribution of soil moisture is also important. Nowadays, the usage of remote sensing, apart from traditional methods, for estimating soil moisture is rapidly increasing. In this context, Synthetic Aperture Radar images constitute one of the remote sensing tools. In this study, soil moisture was estimated using Sentinel-1 imaging in a 25-decar field. In situ measurements were carried out with a soil moisture meter in synchronization with the Sentinel-1 transition. As a result of the study, soil moisture was estimated with an empirical approach, using a model derived from in situ soil moisture measurement and Sentinel-1 backscatter data.