Proceedings Article | 23 May 2011
Proc. SPIE. 8017, Detection and Sensing of Mines, Explosive Objects, and Obscured Targets XVI
KEYWORDS: Landsat, Soil science, Visualization, Satellites, Satellite imaging, Spatial resolution, Heat flux, Improvised explosive devices, Earth observing sensors, Land mines
Soil moisture conditions have an impact upon virtually all aspects of Army activities and are increasingly affecting its
systems and operations. Soil moisture conditions affect operational mobility, detection of landmines and unexploded
ordinance, natural material penetration/excavation, military engineering activities, blowing dust and sand, watershed
responses, and flooding. This study further explores a method for high-resolution (2.7 m) soil moisture mapping using
remote satellite optical imagery that is readily available from Landsat and QuickBird. The soil moisture estimations are
needed for the evaluation of IED sensors using the Countermine Simulation Testbed in regions where access is difficult
or impossible. The method has been tested in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, using a Landsat7 image and a QuickBird
image of April 23 and 24, 2009, respectively. In previous work it was found that Landsat soil moisture can be predicted
from the visual and near infra-red Landsat bands1-4. Since QuickBird bands 1-4 are almost identical to Landsat bands 1-
4, a Landsat soil moisture map can be downscaled using QuickBird bands 1-4. However, using this global approach for
downscaling from Landsat to QuickBird scale yielded a small number of pixels with erroneous soil moisture values.
Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine how the quality of the downscaled soil moisture maps can be
improved by using a data stratification approach for the development of downscaling regression equations for each
landscape class. It was found that stratification results in a reliable downscaled soil moisture map with a spatial
resolution of 2.7 m.
