Estimation of large scale surface soil moisture using remote sensing approach

The surface soil moisture of three districts namely Bulandshar, Gazjiabad and Goutam Buddha Nagar of India was estimated using remote sensing approach during the Rabi season (October–March) in 2009 and 2010. The daily evapotranspiration (ET) at the satellite passing date was in between 0.0 and 6.7 mm/day in 2009 (CV=57%) and between 0.0 and 6.81 mm/day in 2010 (CV=39%) while the variations in the surface soil moisture map in the whole region developed from optical remote sensing using SEBAL were between 1.5% and 45.7% in 2009 (CV=40%) and between 8.5% and 33.4% in 2010 (CV=34%). Further improvement of the prediction model would help in decision making by farmers in agricultural operations.