Assessment of soil parameter estimation errors for fusion of multichannel radar measurements

The application of multichannel radar measurement techniques for estimation of bare soil parameters is based on different principles of radiowave and soil surface interaction depending on radiowave frequency, polarisation and incidence angle. The accuracy of soil parameter estimation depends on the number of radar measurements and the choice of radiowave parameters. Random and systematic errors present in radar data may also have the impact on estimation results. To improve the accuracy of soil parameters estimation by fusion of multichannel radar data we propose a new method for assessment of estimation errors. It is based on local linear approximation of the radiowave scattering model and takes into account impairment characteristics, measurement conditions and radar parameters. This new method is applied to an example to illustrate how the estimation accuracy of soil moisture and roughness parameters can be improved by optimising the radar operating frequencies.