{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,7]],"date-time":"2026-03-07T03:08:44Z","timestamp":1772852924623,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":54,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,14]],"date-time":"2017-11-14T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1510617600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The main objective of this study is to analyze the potential use of Sentinel-1 (S1) radar data for the estimation of soil characteristics (roughness and water content) and cereal vegetation parameters (leaf area index (LAI), and vegetation height (H)) in agricultural areas. Simultaneously to several radar acquisitions made between 2015 and 2017, using S1 sensors over the Kairouan Plain (Tunisia, North Africa), ground measurements of soil roughness, soil water content, LAI and H were recorded. The NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) index computed from Landsat optical images revealed a strong correlation with in situ measurements of LAI. The sensitivity of the S1 measurements to variations in soil moisture, which has been reported in several scientific publications, is confirmed in this study. This sensitivity decreases with increasing vegetation cover growth (NDVI), and is stronger in the VV (vertical) polarization than in the VH cross-polarization. The results also reveal a similar increase in the dynamic range of radar signals observed in the VV and VH polarizations as a function of soil roughness. The sensitivity of S1 measurements to vegetation parameters (LAI and H) in the VV polarization is also determined, showing that the radar signal strength decreases when the vegetation parameters increase. No vegetation parameter sensitivity is observed in the VH polarization, probably as a consequence of volume scattering effects.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s17112617","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,14]],"date-time":"2017-11-14T10:58:32Z","timestamp":1510657112000},"page":"2617","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":143,"title":["Potential of Sentinel-1 Radar Data for the Assessment of Soil and Cereal Cover Parameters"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Safa","family":"Bousbih","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"CESBIO (CNRS\/UPS\/IRD\/CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse CEDEX 9, France"},{"name":"Universit\u00e9 de Carthage\/INAT\/LR GREEN-TEAM, 43 Avenue Charles Nicolle, Tunis 1082, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6141-8222","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mehrez","family":"Zribi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CESBIO (CNRS\/UPS\/IRD\/CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse CEDEX 9, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zohra","family":"Lili-Chabaane","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 de Carthage\/INAT\/LR GREEN-TEAM, 43 Avenue Charles Nicolle, Tunis 1082, Tunisia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9461-4120","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nicolas","family":"Baghdadi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IRSTEA, UMR TETIS, 500 Rue Fran\u00e7ois Breton, 34093 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mohammad","family":"El Hajj","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IRSTEA, UMR TETIS, 500 Rue Fran\u00e7ois Breton, 34093 Montpellier CEDEX 5, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Qi","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CESBIO (CNRS\/UPS\/IRD\/CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse CEDEX 9, France"},{"name":"IsardSAT, Parc Tecnol\u00f2gic Barcelona Activa, Carrer de Marie Curie, 8, 08042 Barcelona, Spain"},{"name":"Observatori de l\u2019Ebre (OE), Universitat Ramon Llull-CSIC, 08022 Barcelona, Spain"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3415-8095","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bernard","family":"Mougenot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CESBIO (CNRS\/UPS\/IRD\/CNES), 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31401 Toulouse CEDEX 9, France"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,14]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1138","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1100217","article-title":"Regions of strong coupling between soil moisture and precipitation","volume":"305","author":"Koster","year":"2004","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2671","DOI":"10.3390\/w6092671","article-title":"Investigation of Rainfall-Runoff Processes and Soil Moisture Dynamics in Grassland Plots under Simulated Rainfall Conditions","volume":"6","author":"Zhao","year":"2014","journal-title":"Water"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"287","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jhydrol.2008.12.023","article-title":"Water and Energy budgets simulation over the Niger super site spatially constrained with remote sensing data","volume":"375","author":"Decharme","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Hydrol."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1368","DOI":"10.1016\/j.proeng.2016.07.499","article-title":"The relevance of soil moisture by remote sensing and hydrological modelling","volume":"154","author":"Zhuo","year":"2016","journal-title":"Procedia Eng."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Baghdadi, N., and Zribi, M. (2016). Optical Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces: Techniques and Methods, Elsevier."},{"key":"ref_6","unstructured":"Baghdadi, N., and Zribi, M. (2016). Microwave Remote Sensing of Land Surfaces: Techniques and Methods, Elsevier."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3135","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2006.881714","article-title":"Soil moisture estimates from AMSR-E brightness temperatures by using a dual-frequency algorithm","volume":"44","author":"Paloscia","year":"2006","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"191","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(99)00036-X","article-title":"A method for estimating soil moisture from ERS scatterometer and soil data","volume":"70","author":"Wagner","year":"1999","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1254","DOI":"10.1109\/36.628792","article-title":"Estimation of bare surface soil moisture and surface roughness parameter using L-band SAR image data","volume":"35","author":"Shi","year":"1997","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1638","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2003.813356","article-title":"Use of multiincidence angle RADARSAT-1 SAR data to incorporate the effect of surface roughness in soil moisture estimation","volume":"41","author":"Srivastava","year":"2003","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2606","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2005.856634","article-title":"A simplistic incidence angle approach to retrieve the soil moisture and surface roughness at X-band","volume":"43","author":"Singh","year":"2005","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"547","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2007.909951","article-title":"Soil moisture retrieval from remotely sensed data: Neural network approach versus bayesian method","volume":"46","author":"Notarnicola","year":"2008","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2528","DOI":"10.1109\/TGRS.2009.2018448","article-title":"Large-area soil moisture estimation using multi-incidence-angle RADARSAT-1 SAR data","volume":"47","author":"Srivastava","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, H., Magagi, R., Goita, K., Jagdhuber, T., and Hajnsek, I. (2016). Evaluation of simplified polarimetric decomposition for soil moisture retrieval over vegetated agricultural fields. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8020142"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1955","DOI":"10.1007\/s11430-011-4204-3","article-title":"A new semi-empirical model for soil moisture content retrieval by ASAR and TM data in vegetation-covered areas","volume":"54","author":"Yu","year":"2011","journal-title":"Sci. China Earth Sci."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1117","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-15-1117-2011","article-title":"Combined use of optical and radar satellite data for the monitoring of irrigation and soil moisture of wheat crops","volume":"15","author":"Fieuzal","year":"2011","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"36","DOI":"10.1016\/j.pce.2015.02.009","article-title":"Surface soil moisture retrievals from remote sensing: Current status, products and future trends","volume":"83","author":"Petropoulos","year":"2015","journal-title":"Phys. Chem. Earth"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1279","DOI":"10.3390\/rs70201279","article-title":"Modeling and Mapping Soil Moisture of Plateau Pasture Using RADARSAT-2 Imagery","volume":"7","author":"Chai","year":"2015","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Alexakis, D.D., Mexis, F.K., Vozinaki, A.K., Daliakopoulos, I.N., and Tsanis, I.K. (2017). Soil Moisture Content Estimation Based on Sentinel-1 and Auxiliary Earth Observation Products. A Hydrological Approach. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17061455"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bai, X., He, B., Li, X., Zeng, J., Wang, X., Wang, Z., Zeng, Y., and Su, Z. (2017). First Assessment of Sentinel-1A Data for Surface Soil Moisture Estimations Using a Coupled Water Cloud Model and Advanced Integral Equation Model over the Tibetan Plateau. Remote Sens., 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs9070714"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"848","DOI":"10.1109\/LGRS.2013.2279893","article-title":"Influence of radar frequency on the relationship between bare surface soil moisture vertical profile and radar backscatter","volume":"11","author":"Zribi","year":"2014","journal-title":"IEEE Geosci. Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8899","DOI":"10.3390\/s101008899","article-title":"Potentiel of ASAR\/ENVISAT for the characterization of soil surface parameters over bare agricultural fields","volume":"10","author":"Baghdadi","year":"2010","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"9","DOI":"10.1002\/hyp.6609","article-title":"Operational performance of current synthetic aperture radar sensors in mapping soil surface characteristics in agricultural environments: Application to hydrological and erosion modeling","volume":"22","author":"Baghdadi","year":"2008","journal-title":"Hydrol. Process."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"370","DOI":"10.1109\/36.134086","article-title":"An empirical model and an inversion technique for radar scattering from bare soil surfaces","volume":"30","author":"Oh","year":"1992","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"356","DOI":"10.1109\/36.134085","article-title":"Backscattering from a randomly rough dielectric surface","volume":"30","author":"Fung","year":"1992","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"915","DOI":"10.1109\/36.406677","article-title":"Measuring soil moisture with imaging radars","volume":"33","author":"Dubois","year":"1995","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Baghdadi, N., Choker, M., Zribi, M., El-hajj, M., Paloscia, S., Verhoest, N., Lievens, H., Baup, F., and Mattia, F. (2016). A new empirical model for radar scattering from bare soil surfaces. Remote Sens., 8.","DOI":"10.3390\/rs8110920"},{"key":"ref_28","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3547","DOI":"10.1080\/01431160601009680","article-title":"Soil moisture mapping based on ARSAR\/ENVISAT radar data over a sahelian site","volume":"28","author":"Zribi","year":"2007","journal-title":"Int. J. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"308","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(96)00145-9","article-title":"A comparison of soil moisture retrieval models using SIR-C measurements over the Little Washita River watershed","volume":"59","author":"Wang","year":"1997","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_30","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"345","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-15-345-2011","article-title":"Soil surface moisture estimation over a semi-arid region using ENVISAT ASAR radar data for soil evaporation evaluation","volume":"15","author":"Zribi","year":"2011","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1607","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-16-1607-2012","article-title":"Estimation of soil parameters over bare agriculture areas from C-band polarimetric SAR data using neural networks","volume":"16","author":"Baghdadi","year":"2012","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_32","first-page":"61","article-title":"Application of artificial neural networks for the soil moisture retrieval from active and passive microwave spaceborne sensors","volume":"48","author":"Santi","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Appl. Earth Obs. Geoinf."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gao, Q., Zribi, M., Baghdadi, N., and Escorihuela, M.J. (2017). Synergetic Use of Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 Data for Soil Moisture Mapping at 100 m Resolution. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17091966"},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"256","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(96)00158-7","article-title":"Backscattering behavior and simulation comparison over bare soils using SIRC\/XSAR and ERASME 1994 data over Orgeval","volume":"59","author":"Zribi","year":"1997","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_35","unstructured":"Fung, A.K. (1994). Microwave Scattering and Emission Models and Their Applications, Artech House."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"954","DOI":"10.1109\/36.602537","article-title":"The effect of surface roughness on multifrequency polarimetric SAR data","volume":"35","author":"Mattia","year":"1997","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"67","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2004.11.014","article-title":"Evaluation of a rough soil surface description with ASAR-ENVISAT Radar Data","volume":"95","author":"Zribi","year":"2005","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1067","DOI":"10.3390\/s90201067","article-title":"Error in SAR-derived soil moisture due to roughness parameterization: An analysis based on synthetical surface profiles","volume":"9","author":"Lievens","year":"2009","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"151","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-15-151-2011","article-title":"Effective roughness modelling as a tool for soil moisture retrieval from C-and L-band SAR","volume":"15","author":"Lievens","year":"2011","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci."},{"key":"ref_40","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"62","DOI":"10.1016\/j.rse.2014.05.009","article-title":"A new soil roughness parameter for the modelling of radar backscattering over bare soil","volume":"152","author":"Zribi","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Gorrab, A., Zribi, M., Baghdadi, N., and Lili Chabaane, Z. (2016, January 10\u201315). Mapping of surface soil parameters (roughness, moisture and texture) using one radar X-band SAR configuration over bare agricultural semi-arid region. Proceedings of the International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, Beijing, China.","DOI":"10.1109\/IGARSS.2016.7729785"},{"key":"ref_42","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"357","DOI":"10.1029\/RS013i002p00357","article-title":"Vegetation modeled as a water cloud","volume":"13","author":"Attema","year":"1978","journal-title":"Radio Sci."},{"key":"ref_43","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1159","DOI":"10.1007\/s11431-010-0131-3","article-title":"Advances in estimation methods of vegetation water content based on optical remote sensing techniques","volume":"53","author":"Zhang","year":"2010","journal-title":"Sci. China Technol. Sci."},{"key":"ref_44","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10002","DOI":"10.3390\/rs61010002","article-title":"Irrigated grassland monitoring using a time series of terraSAR-X and COSMO-skyMed X-Band SAR Data","volume":"6","author":"Baghdadi","year":"2014","journal-title":"Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_45","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"300","DOI":"10.2134\/agronj1984.00021962007600020029x","article-title":"Estimating absorbed photosynthetic radiation and leaf area index from spectral reflectance in wheat","volume":"76","author":"Asrar","year":"1984","journal-title":"Agron. J."},{"key":"ref_46","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"37","DOI":"10.1016\/j.agrformet.2003.08.001","article-title":"Review of methods for in situ leaf area index (LAI) determination: Part II. Estimation of LAI, errors and sampling","volume":"121","author":"Weiss","year":"2004","journal-title":"Agric. For. Meteorol."},{"key":"ref_47","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1731","DOI":"10.5194\/hess-14-1731-2010","article-title":"Combined use of FORMOSAT-2 images with a crop model for biomass and water monitoring of permanent grassland in Mediterranean region","volume":"7","author":"Courault","year":"2010","journal-title":"Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss."},{"key":"ref_48","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"162","DOI":"10.4236\/ars.2013.22020","article-title":"Monitoring wheat and rapeseed by using synchronous optical and radar satellite data\u2014From temporal signatures to crop parameters estimation","volume":"2","author":"Fieuzal","year":"2013","journal-title":"Adv. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_49","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2107","DOI":"10.1109\/36.774723","article-title":"The potential of C- and L-band SAR in estimating vegetation biomass: The ERS-1 and JERS-1 Experiments","volume":"37","author":"Paloscia","year":"1999","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens."},{"key":"ref_50","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"130","DOI":"10.1016\/S0034-4257(00)00200-5","article-title":"Parameterization of vegetation backscatter in radar-based, soil moisture estimation","volume":"76","author":"Bindlish","year":"2001","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Environ."},{"key":"ref_51","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8899","DOI":"10.3390\/s101008899","article-title":"Multitemporal observations of sugarcane by TerraSAR-X images","volume":"10","author":"Baghdadi","year":"2010","journal-title":"Sensors"},{"key":"ref_52","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1107","DOI":"10.1080\/2150704X.2013.842285","article-title":"Sensitivity analysis of X-band SAR to wheat and barley leaf area index in the Merguellil Basin","volume":"4","author":"Fontanelli","year":"2013","journal-title":"Remote Sens. Lett."},{"key":"ref_53","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"876","DOI":"10.1016\/j.envsoft.2007.10.003","article-title":"A simple algorithm for yield estimates: Evaluation for semi-arid irrigated winter wheat monitored with green leaf area index","volume":"23","author":"Duchemin","year":"2008","journal-title":"Environ. Model. Softw."},{"key":"ref_54","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1129","DOI":"10.1109\/JSTARS.2015.2464698","article-title":"Coupling SAR C-band and optical data for soil moisture and leaf area index retrieval over irrigated grasslands","volume":"9","author":"Baghdadi","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE J. Sel. Top. Appl. Earth Obs. Remote Sens."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2617\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T18:49:24Z","timestamp":1760208564000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/17\/11\/2617"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,14]]},"references-count":54,"journal-issue":{"issue":"11","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2017,11]]}},"alternative-id":["s17112617"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s17112617","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2017,11,14]]}}}