Analysis of multi-frequency SAR data for evaluating their sensitivity to soil moisture over an agricultural area in Argentina

In this paper, a joint analysis of multi-frequency SAR data has been performed to assess their sensitivity to soil moisture variations over an agricultural area. The main objective was evaluating the performances offered by C and L bands in terms of sensitivity to soil moisture. We used L-band quad-polarimetric data acquired by SAOCOM-1A and C-band dual-polarimetric data collected by Sentinel-1A over an agricultural area located in the Córdoba Province, Argentina. We analyzed the temporal evolution of the backscattering coefficient at different polarizations with respect to in-situ soil moisture measurements collected during a field campaign conducted by the Argentinian Space Agency as well as data recorded by a permanent network of ground stations. Sensitivity to other variables, such as the NDVI, is also discussed and analyzed.