Shai Sela ,Tal Svoray - ) Dept. of Geography and Environmental Development, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel

Recent advances in remote sensing technologies have led spaceborn platforms to emerge as successful tools in studying and monitoring soil moisture dynamics. A common need for all remote sensing missions is intensive ground soil moisture samplings for validating predictions and the calibration of retrieval algorithms usually conducted using a network of soil moisture probes. These probes generally have a minimal size of approximately 5 cm, due to technical limits. When these probes are used for validation at the top soil layer, the validation depth is deeper than the sensor effective penetration depth generally of 0-3 cm, a bias which can affect validation results. In dryland areas, where physical sealing of the soil is a wide spread phenomenon, validation can be even more complex. The seal layer has different hydraulic parameters than the underlying soil, with a much lower hydraulic conductivity that affect both infiltration and evaporation fluxes.

EGU General Assembly 2013, held 7-12 April, 2013 in Vienna, Austria, id. EGU2013-4509