Amélioration de l'étude de l'humidité de sols par radiométrie : caractérisation et modélisation diélectriques de profils géologiques

National audienceThe surface soil moisture is a key variable to describe the exchange of water and energy between the land and the atmosphere. In hydrology, and meteorology, the amount of water in the upper soil layers permits (0-5 cm from the surface) the evaluation of the relationship between the real evaporation and the potential evaporation of the bare soil. It is also possible to determine the distribution of rainfall or other variables such as hydraulic conductivity. Studies have shown that microwave sensors could be used to scan the surface soil moisture. The solution choose by the team associated with the SMOS mission (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) is to use a radiometer (1.4 GHz) to identify soil microwave emissions . The measurements are made on the site of CESBIO in Toulouse where a 1.4 GHz radiometer is installed . The effect of vegetation cover, soil temperatures, snow cover, topography or moisture variations have an important role in the broadcast microwave surface. Other parameters such as the presence of inclusions in the ground (holes, stones), or soil texture can also disrupt measurements. The aim of the work that we present in this paper is to develop a numerical model to simulate complex geological structures. This model must take into account all parameters that can affect the equivalent permittivity measured by the radiometer (surface, moisture variation ,... inclusions). The purpose of this model is to calculate the equivalent permittivity of these geological structures in order to be able to associate with each radiometer measurement an equivalent moisture