Estimating Surface Soil Moisture in Simulated AVIRIS Spectra

Soil albedo is influenced by many physical and chemical constituents, with moisture being the most influential on the spectra general shape and albedo (Stoner and Baumgardner, 1981). Without moisture, the intrinsic or matrix reflectance of dissimilar soils varies widely due to differences in surface roughness, particle and aggregate sizes, mineral types, including salts, and organic matter contents. The influence of moisture on soil reflectance can be isolated by comparing similar soils in a study of the effects that small differences in moisture content have on reflectance. However, without prior knowledge of the soil physical and chemical constituents within every pixel, it is nearly impossible to accurately attribute the reflectance variability in an image to moisture or to differences in the physical and chemical constituents in the soil. The effect of moisture on the spectra must be eliminated to use hyperspectral imagery for determining minerals and organic matter abundances of bare agricultural soils. Accurate soil mineral and organic matter abundance maps from air- and space-borne imagery can improve GIS models for precision farming prescription, and managing irrigation and salinity. Better models of soil moisture and reflectance will also improve the selection of soil endmembers for spectral mixture analysis.