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Click here to search FindAPhD.com for PhD studentship opportunitiesAbout the Project
Because of the limitations of using amplitude, a new and potentially disruptive scheme for moisture estimation using both amplitude and phase is being pioneered at Reading. Phase provides extra insights into the radar-soil interaction, and early results suggest it may additionally be much less sensitive to the confusion associated with the amplitude signal. The study will involve experimental work, data analysis and interpretation, and modelling. A bespoke, portable, C-band imaging radar system will be built to carry out measurements at sites utilized by the LANDMARK project. The imaging will use the tomographic profiling scheme to provide very-high resolution images of the vertical amplitude and phase scattering patterns through a soil column, and their responses to varying moisture states. This will, uniquely, allow us to see how and where the signals arise from within a soil, which we normally see collapsed and overlain in SAR imagery, and hence indistinguishable. We will be able to immediately and unambiguously answer questions researchers otherwise seek to retrieve by model inversion and intelligent supposition.
The field data will be used to validate and develop an existing coherent radar ray tracing model of soil-moisture backscatter. The ground measurements will be synchronized to the time of over-passes by the C-band Sentinel satellites. We can then compare the amplitude and phase behaviours observed at the Sentinel satellites to the ground and modelling results to understand how moisture changes are perceived by satellite radar. This information will give us the insight into how the moisture signal is encoded in the satellite measurement, to best understand how it can be extracted to provide a more robust moisture product.
TRAINING
Soil moisture studies are part of on-going collaborations with the Technical University of Vienna, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, and German Aerospace Centre. The student can be expected to be involved in visits and placements at these institutes over the course of the studentship.
In addition, Prof. Morrison has an on-going research study into the behaviour of radar backscatter to soil moisture using the recently built indoor GB-SAR radar laboratory. The student will have access to this state-of-the-art facility, and gain valuable experimental skills in precision microwave measurement.
To read more about this project please follow the link: http://www.met.reading.ac.uk/nercdtp/home/available/desc/entry2018/SC201808.pdf
Funding Notes
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