Determination of Soil Moisture Using Microwave Techniques
LABORATORY EVALUATION OF SOIL MOISTURE USING MICROWAVE TECHNIQUES
1K .Prasanth , 2K .Shashank , 3M .Ashok , 4M . AV H Krishna , 5Zachariah C Alex
1B.TECH (ECE),VIT University,Vellore,2B.TECH(ECE),VIT University ,Vellore, 3B.TECH (ECE),VIT University,Vellore,4B.TECH(ECE),VIT University ,Vellore, 5Senior professor, VIT University, Vellore.
ABSTRACT
Microwave techniques can be used to measure soil moisture content, mineral content and fertility of the soils. A microwave set up is designed for laboratory evaluation of soil moisture by measuring the output power by transmitting microwaves through soil samples. A relation between output power and soil moisture is obtained by analyzing the output power data for the soil samples. The relation is verified using known values of the moisture evaluated using gravimetric analysis. Experiments were conducted in the x- band frequency range of (8-12 GHz).Further an embedded system can be developed for the in-situ measurements of soil moisture.
I .INTRODUCTION
Moisture content in soil is an important parameter which is useful in different fields such as agriculture, civil engineering, forestry and environmental studies. Determining the amount of soil moisture helps to determine whether a region has enough soil moisture to assist plantation. At present microwave techniques including passive microwave radiometry [5] and active microwave remote sensing are playing an important role in determining soil moisture. But ground truth data is required for the correct evaluation of soil moisture. Soil moisture content can be retrieved using different techniques such as gravimetric analysis, volumetric analysis, Tensiometric techniques etc. in the laboratories. Though these techniques are widely used for laboratory evaluation of soil moisture content, they are time consuming. In this paper, a microwave technique is proposed to determine soil moisture content in relation with the output power.
I I .SAMPLE
1K .Prasanth , 2K .Shashank , 3M .Ashok , 4M . AV H Krishna , 5Zachariah C Alex
1B.TECH (ECE),VIT University,Vellore,2B.TECH(ECE),VIT University ,Vellore, 3B.TECH (ECE),VIT University,Vellore,4B.TECH(ECE),VIT University ,Vellore, 5Senior professor, VIT University, Vellore.
ABSTRACT
Microwave techniques can be used to measure soil moisture content, mineral content and fertility of the soils. A microwave set up is designed for laboratory evaluation of soil moisture by measuring the output power by transmitting microwaves through soil samples. A relation between output power and soil moisture is obtained by analyzing the output power data for the soil samples. The relation is verified using known values of the moisture evaluated using gravimetric analysis. Experiments were conducted in the x- band frequency range of (8-12 GHz).Further an embedded system can be developed for the in-situ measurements of soil moisture.
I .INTRODUCTION
Moisture content in soil is an important parameter which is useful in different fields such as agriculture, civil engineering, forestry and environmental studies. Determining the amount of soil moisture helps to determine whether a region has enough soil moisture to assist plantation. At present microwave techniques including passive microwave radiometry [5] and active microwave remote sensing are playing an important role in determining soil moisture. But ground truth data is required for the correct evaluation of soil moisture. Soil moisture content can be retrieved using different techniques such as gravimetric analysis, volumetric analysis, Tensiometric techniques etc. in the laboratories. Though these techniques are widely used for laboratory evaluation of soil moisture content, they are time consuming. In this paper, a microwave technique is proposed to determine soil moisture content in relation with the output power.
I I .SAMPLE