Soil moisture estimation using automotive radar

Monitoring soil moisture is helpful for assuring crop’s quality and reducing the risk of inappropriate irrigation. Manual retrieval of data from the field is time consuming as both setting up and maintaining the soil meter needs labors. In this paper, the possibility of using automotive radar to measure the soil moisture information is investigated. It shows the correlation between the radar backscatter and the soil moisture that can extend the application of automotive radar to agriculture. Given that the automotive radar can be easily mounted into vehicles and agricultural machinery, the preliminary trial shows that the automotive radar has the potential for saving time and increasing the accuracy of soil moisture monitoring to help with irrigation decisions.