Comparative Analysis of NavIC Multipath Observables for Soil Moisture over Different Field Conditions

Abstract

Studies of soil moisture with Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) have gained the attention of several researchers. Multipath amplitude, multipath phase, and multipath frequency are multipath observables that are utilized in the study of soil moisture. However, an inter-comparison of the performance of these parameters for soil moisture under different roughness and vegetation conditions is very much required to have a better insight so that more robust inversion algorithm for soil moisture retrieval with multipath observables can be designed. Therefore, this paper analyses the performance of these multipath observables for soil moisture over bare smooth soil, rough surface, and vegetated soil. Two different fields have been investigated to include the location variability. Navigation with Indian constellation (NavIC) multipath signal has been used in this study. Statistical parameters such as correlation coefficient (R), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), and sensitivity have been determined to study the performance of multipath observable for soil moisture under different surface roughness and vegetation conditions.