InSAR for soil moisture monitoring

Recent experience and future climate projections show increasingly wet winters and increasingly dry summers. The resulting wetting and drying cycles are causing increased shrinkage and swelling of earthworks. This is particularly problematic for railways which rely on carefully controlled vertical positioning of the track.

Shrinkage and expansion of the underlying earthworks can result in train speed restrictions and the deployment of on-track tamping machines to fix the problem. This research will study changes in soil moisture content.

L and C-band data have different soil penetration depths and will be used to in conjunction to develop new algorithms for the remote detection of soil moisture content.

They will also be combined with historical weather data and future weather projections to determine future likely risks.