Microstrip Ring Resonator for Soil Moisture Measurements

摘要

Accurate determination of spatial soil moisture distribution and monitoring its temporal variation have a significant impact on the outcomes of hydrologic, ecologic, and climatic models. Development of a successful remote sensing instrument for soil moisture relies on the accurate knowledge of the soil dielectric constant (epsilon(sub soil)) to its moisture content. Two existing methods for mearsurement of dielectric constant of soil at low and high frequencies are, respectively, the time domain reflectometry and the reflection coefficient measurement using an open-ended coaxial probe. The major shortcoming of these methods is the lack of accurate determination of the imaginary part of epsilon(sub soil).