MICROWAVE REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES FOR THE ANALYSIS OF LAND SURFACE PARAMETERS

Physical soil and vegetation characteristics play an essential role in the functioning of continental water and carbon cycles [1,2]. Over the last three decades, various different remote sensing techniques based on the use of microwave backscattering have demonstrated considerable potential for the estimation of soil and vegetation parameters, and several instrumental studies, making use of theoretical and experimental inversion techniques, have been developed for the retrieval of land surface parameters. Despite these significant scientific developments, the operational use of microwave remote sensing has been hampered, in particular as a consequence of the limitations from which it suffers in terms of coverage and/or resolution. Three techniques are presented in this paper: radar, passive microwave and GNSS-R remote sensing. A discussion of the historical development of these techniques, and a description of some of their applications, are included.