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Airborne GPS Bistatic Radar Soil Moisture

Measurements During SMEX02


D. Masters1, S. Katzberg2, P. Axelrad1
1
CCAR/University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309
2
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23681

Abstract- To further investigate the potential for remotely GHz, an optimal frequency for soil moisture remote sensing.
sensing soil moisture using the L-band GPS bistatic radar Measurement of GPS signals reflected from the land surface is
concept, a GPS bistatic radar participated for the first time in analogous to a bistatic radar system, with transmitters located
airborne measurements during the Soil Moisture Experiment at each GPS satellite and a separate receiver located above the
2002 (SMEX02) in Ames, Iowa. A 12-channel GPS navigation
surface of the earth. In bistatic systems, the scattering is
receiver was modified to perform bistatic radar measurements
and mounted on the NCAR C-130 aircraft to make co-located mainly forward, and the radar cross section is expressed as a
measurements with the JPL PALS instrument. The reflected bistatic cross section.
GPS signal-to-noise ratio measurements generated a ground In 1996, Katzberg and Garrison initiated an investigation
track which was sensitive to the surface characteristics. into the use of GPS bistatic signals for ocean remote sensing
Assuming surface roughness and vegetation cover to be constants applications using a Delay Mapping Receiver (DMR) [7]. The
over the duration of the study period, the temporal changes in the theory of GPS signal scattering from rough surfaces,
measured signals were suspected to be proportional to varying particularly ocean waves, was described in [8]. From theory,
soil moisture content. The bistatic signal measurements were the GPS signal scattered by the land surface will fluctuate due
interpolated to a UTM grid to produce daily maps of relative
to surface roughness, permittivity, and vegetation attenuation.
change of surface soil moisture over the study region. The maps
of the study region showed a transition from very dry surface soil For the present investigation of soil moisture sensitivity during
moisture conditions to very wet conditions following precipitation SMEX02, some simplifying assumptions were used, namely
events occurring in the middle of the study period. Additionally, that the surface roughness would not change with time nor
the maps showed sensitivity to localized rainfall in areas where would vegetation growth attenuate the signal. Therefore the
the scattered power increased relative to areas without temporal changes in scattered power would be due only to soil
precipitation. The scattered signal measurements were also moisture variations.
compared with in situ soil moisture measurements at 32 field sites
and found to follow the general soil moisture trend as a function II. MEASUREMENT METHODS
of time. These positive initial results from the first controlled
experiment of GPS bistatic radar for measuring soil moisture The SMEX02 campaign was conducted in Ames, Iowa
were encouraging. Additional analyses with the present data set
during June and July of 2002. More information on the
and comparison with other remote sensing instruments (PALS)
are planned as well as participation in future campaigns. SMEX02 campaign is provided in [9]. A DMR receiver was
mounted in the NCAR C-130 aircraft with a low-gain, zenith
I. INTRODUCTION RCP patch antenna viewing the sky and a replica nadir LCP
patch antenna viewing the ground. A total of eight, non-
A number of disciplines, including hydrology, climatology, consecutive flight days were conducted by the C-130.
and agriculture, require soil moisture content for prediction of The DMR software was modified to operate autonomously
potential flood hazards, understanding land-atmosphere energy using a database of orthometric land surface heights to
balance, and crop yield expectation [1]. Soil moisture has compensate for elevation changes and predict the location
been identified as a key—but lacking—input to numerical (delay) of the signal reflection. Additionally, the DMR was
weather prediction models. Remote sensing of soil moisture programmed to track the signals from the highest elevation
has been predominantly realized in the microwave region of satellite in view which would result in incidence angles near
the electromagnetic spectrum. Within the microwave band, nadir. The DMR recorded reflected waveforms were post-
frequencies in the range of 1-3 GHz (30-10 cm) have been processed to georeference the receiver position and estimate
shown to be ideally suited to sensing soil of moisture due to the specular reflection points onto the land surface following
reduced atmospheric attenuation and better penetration of the procedure described in [6].
vegetation at longer wavelengths [2]. A wide variety of both Most of the measured reflection waveforms resembled the
passive radiometers and active radar sensors have been used to direct signal correlation waveform without spreading to longer
measure soil moisture, and work in this field is active [1-4]. delays, indicating that the scattering surface was acting like a
A new technique to measure soil moisture using GPS specular reflector. The noise power was estimated using a
bistatic radar was proposed following synergistic work in correlator measuring the absence of signal before the arrival of
sensing ocean surface roughness and winds [5,6]. The GPS the reflected signal. The peak of the reflected power was
constellation broadcasts a civilian-use carrier signal at 1.57542 estimated by fitting the measured waveform (sampled at half-

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delta SNR (dB)


20020708 Figure 2. GPS bistatic radar reflected signal delta SNR maps over the
SMEX02 study area from June 27 to July 8, 2002. The change in SNR
with respect to the initial conditions on June 25 is plotted on subsequent
SNR (dB) days to show the change in reflectivity following the rain events.
Figure 1. GPS bistatic radar reflected signal SNR maps over the surrounding the specular point (~ 1 km diameter) or for, purely
SMEX02 study area from June 25 to July 8, 2002. The east-west flight
lines have been interpolated to a UTM grid with 100 m pixels and
specular reflection, the first Fresnel zone (~ 20 m diameter).
smoothed with a 4x4 mean filter. Low SNR (red) indicates dry Although the GPS bistatic radar measured a scattered signal
conditions, while high SNR (blue) indicates wet conditions. power from a single spot on the ground, the neighboring east-
chip intervals) to the theoretical correlation waveform. The west and repeat tracks were linearly interpolated to a 2-D
SNR was computed from the ratio of the scattered power to the UTM grid with 100 m pixels. Figure 1 shows the SNR maps
estimated noise. The direct signal power was also measured for the eight days. The maps indicate general dry conditions
by the DMR, but multipath fluctuations prevented this over the study region for the first four days of the campaign,
measurement from being used as a normalizing factor, as is followed by a localized precipitation event on July 5 in the
preferred in bistatic radar to produce a relative calibration of western section of the area. Additionally, the subsequent days
the scattered power. Therefore, the SNR of the scattered show general increased scattered signal power indicating wide-
power was used solely as the observable to estimate the area precipitation and increased soil moisture over the entire
changes in soil moisture levels. region. The obvious structure observed in some parts of all of
The C-130 flight lines were conducted in an east-west the maps is most likely due to man-made reflectors or bodies
fashion spaced approximately 800 m apart to accommodate the of water.
PALS instrument footprint. The aircraft height remained To detect the change in soil moisture over the study period,
constant at 1100 feet above ground level. Since the flights the change in the SNR was computed for each day relative to
occurred nominally at the same time each day, the same three the first day, June 25. These change detection maps are
satellite PRNs tracked by the receiver were repeated daily. plotted in Figure 2. They show clearly that the GPS bistatic
The elevation angles of these satellites ranged from radar measurements capture the temporal change in surface
approximately 65 to 85 degrees. The circular size of the active reflectivity.
scattering surface was estimated to be either the first chip

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Additional analyses were performed to compare the co-
located measured scattered signal power to in situ soil
moisture measurements sampled at 32 different field sites.
Figure 3 shows four examples of the scattered signal SNR
plotted against the time series of volumetric soil
measurements. The trends in the soil moisture from dry to wet
levels were captured well by the GPS bistatic radar
measurements. To investigate the relation of the measured
scattered signal SNR to the volumetric soil moisture, all of the
SNR measurements that were co-located and within eight
hours of the in situ measurements were placed on a scatter
plot. This plot in Figure 4 shows a rough linear relationship
between the measured SNR levels and the volumetric soil
moisture, but considerable scatter prevented a parameterization
based on these current data.

CONCLUSIONS

These positive initial results from the first controlled


experiment of GPS bistatic radar for measuring soil moisture
were encouraging. The novel concept of using GPS bistatic
radar to remotely sense temporal changes in soil moisture was
clearly observed in the SMEX02 campaign. The maps indicate
good sensitivity to soil moisture changes after a precipitation
event, and the trends of the measured scatter power at in situ
field sites follow the volumetric soil measurements as well.
More work needs to be done to parameterize the relationship
between the scattered GPS power, as well as defining a
Figure 4. GPS scattered SNR versus volumetric in situ soil
calibration scheme using multipath-free measurements of the measurements for all 32 field sites.
direct signal power. Additional analyses with the present data
land surface parameters.
set and comparison with other remote sensing instruments
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
(PALS) are planned as well. The possibility to use existing
and future higher power GPS signals, along with signals of We appreciate Tom Jackson of the USDA for the invitation
opportunity from other planned global navigation systems, to participate in the SMEX02 campaign. Additionally, this
could provide a new, inexpensive means to remotely sensing work would not have been possible without the help of Steve
Dinardo at JPL in powering the GPS bistatic radar receiver
WC06
during each flight.
REFERENCES
[1] T. Jackson, J. Schmugge, E. Engman, “Remote sensing applications to
hydrology: soil moisture,” Hydrological Sciences, 41(4), pp. 517-530, 1996.
[2] E. Njoku, D. Entekhabi, “Passive microwave remote sensing of soil
GPS Scattered Signal SNR (dB)

Volumetric Soil Moisture (V/V)

moisture,” J. of Hydrology, 184, pp. 101-129, 1996.


WC08 [3] A. Chang, et al., “L-Band radar sensing of soil moisture,” IEEE Trans.
Geosci. & Remote Sens.,GE-18(4), pp. 303-310, 1980.
[4] D. Le Vine, A. Griffis, C. Swift, T. Jackson., “ESTAR: a synthetic aperture
microwave radiometer for remote sensing applications,” Proc. of the IEEE,
82(12), pp. 1787-1799, 1994.
[5] Masters, D., V. Zavorotny, S. Katzberg, W. Emery. GPS signal scattering
WC27 from land for moisture content determination, Proceedings of IEEE
International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS),
Honolulu, HI, July 24-28, 2000.
[6] Masters, D., P. Axelrad, V. Zavorotny, S. J. Katzberg, F. Lalezari, A
Passive GPS Bistatic Radar Altimeter for Aircraft Navigation, Proceedings
of the ION-GPS, Salt Lake City, 2001.
[7] S. Katzberg, J. Garrison, “Utilizing GPS to determine ionospheric delay
WC31 over the ocean,” NASA Tech. Memo.- 4750, 1996.
[8] V. Zavorotny, A. Voronovich, "Scattering of GPS signals from the ocean
with wind remote sensing application, IEEE Trans Geosci. Remote
Sens.,vol. 38, No. 2, pp.951-964, March, 2000.
[9] SMEX02 Experiment Plan,
Figure 3. Temporal GPS bistatic radar scattered SNR versus in situ http://hydrolab.arsusda.gov/smex02/smex60302.pdf
soil moisture measurements at four of the 32 field sites. The GPS
SNR follows the trend of the in situ measurements well.

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