Satellite remote sensing applications for surface soil moisture monitoring: A review

Surface soil moisture is one of the crucial variables in hydrological processes, which influences the exchange of water and energy fluxes at the land surface/atmosphere interface. Accurate estimate of the spatial and temporal variations of soil moisture is critical for numerous environmental studies. Recent technological advances in satellite remote sensing have shown that soil moisture can be measured by a variety of remote sensing techniques, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the progress in remote sensing of soil moisture, with focus on technique approaches for soil moisture estimation from optical, thermal, passive microwave, and active microwave measurements. The physical principles and the status of current retrieval methods are summarized. Limitations existing in current soil moisture estimation algorithms and key issues that have to be addressed in the near future are also discussed.