Analysis of NavIC Multipath Signal Sensitivity for Soil Moisture in Presence of Vegetation

Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) is India’s own regional navigational satellite system. Besides navigational objective, same infrastructure can also be utilized to study soil moisture. This paper discusses the sensitivity of soil moisture for NavIC multipath signal in presence of vegetation. Soil moisture studies with navigational system have been mostly carried out for bare soil. However, there is no significant work to analyze the soil moisture in presence of vegetation. Therefore, wheat crop has been selected in the study, and sensitivity of soil moisture has been analyzed at various states of growth with NavIC multipath signal. Different ranges of elevation angle have been selected to determine the correlation of multipath amplitude with crop height and soil moisture. Negative correlation was observed between multipath amplitude with crop height. Further, it was observed that elevation angle 15°–30° can be utilized to study soil moisture in the presence of vegetation. The results are very promising and can be further utilized for development of soil moisture retrieval algorithm.