Estimation of relative permittivity for measuring soil texture-dependent water content by GNSS-IR

Techniques for measuring the soil moisture content (SMC) using global navigation satellite system-interferometric reflectometry (GNSS-IR) with a positioning antenna have been reported. However, conventional methods are limited to evaluating the relative change in volumetric water content in a dry range for certain soil textures. In this study, we proposed a method to measure relative permittivity using GNSS-IR and evaluated its applicability at two sites with different soil textures and moisture content. The true multipath penetration depth was obtained from the tangent dielectric suitable for the soil textures, and the apparent penetration depth affected by the relative permittivity of the soil was calculated from the signal-to-noise ratio measured by GNSS. The relative permittivity of the soil was obtained from the ratio of these values and compared with the relative permittivity of the SMC sensor. As a result, we could measure soil permittivity according to soil textures from dry to wet conditions from GNSS-IR, except when the true multipath wave penetration depth was less than 1.5 cm, at which only surface reflection occurred. Sandy soils with a low dielectric loss tangent and wet areas with small changes in the depth of penetration of electromagnetic waves are particularly suitable environments for this method.