Investigation of Moisture Content in Soil using Dielectric Constant Measurement Method

Microwave techniques for the measurement of soil moisture content are based on the fact that the dielectric properties of water and the soil particles are dissimilar. An attempt has been made for determining the relation between moisture content and dielectric constant by simple estimation of dielectric constant measurement from microwave signal. Electrical properties of soils have been measured using an automated X-band microwave set-up in the TE10 mode with Reflex Klystron source operating at frequency operating at 9.56 GHz. In this present work, authors made an attempt to present soil moisture measurement by estimation of emissivity i.e. the ratio of energy radiated by an object to absorbing the body of same physical temperature. A strategic method of measuring dielectric constant using a microwave signal is used in this research work. The measurement of the dielectric constant of the soils collected from the specific regions and analysis of results has been reported. This method is simple and can further be used for the identification of soil moisture and agricultural applications.