Spaceborne microwave radiometry of land surfaces

Microwave emission of the Earth's surface is the fundamental process exploited by passive microwave sensors to detect land and ocean signatures. In land applications microwave radiometers have a high sensitivity to water content of soil, vegetation and atmosphere, and their use can be of great interest in hydrology, meteorology, climatology and in agriculture as well. This paper is a report on research currently in progress which intends to investigate the capability of microwave data from spaceborne sensors in the monitoring of some land surface parameters in the European landscape, where spatial and temporal variations are very high and the climatic conditions change from very dry and hot regions to humid, cold and rainy areas. The objective is to extend on a larger scale certain relations between microwave emission and land parameters which have been established theoretically and in many experiments with ground based and airborne sensors.