Bulgarian Effort Toward The Operational Use Of Passive Microwave Remote Sensing Of Soil Moisture

Abstract

The main results of a program for remote sensing of soil moisture implemented in Bulgaria during the period 1987-1983 under contracts sponsored by the Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture are given. The hardware developed (airborne system consisting of L-band microwave radiometers and a microcomputer-based data acquisition and processing unit) has proven to be reliable on board the aircraft and can be used for soil moisture monitoring and mapping. Under spring conditions the accuracy of the technique used is high enough for estimation of the preplanting soil moisture content in the top one meter layer on operational basis.