COMPARING SOIL MOISTURE FROM THE SMOS MISSION AND GLDAS OVER TWO MOROCCAN STATIONS

Soil moisture has been used in several environmental studies. Recent technologies have shown that soil moisture can be measured by a variety of remote sensing techniques, each method has its advantages and disadvantages. In this article we compared the soil moisture data from SMOS and GLDAS in two stations with different climate (SIDI SLIMANE station in northern Morocco and SMARA station in the south). At these two stations we analyzed the effect of precipitation on soil moisture. During year 2012, the results of this study show a correlation between GLDAS (0-10 cm), GLDAS (10-40 cm) and SMOS data at the SIDI SILIMANE station. The results show that at the SIDI SLIMANE station the correlation exists between the precipitation data of the month preceding the soil moisture measurements of GLDAS (0-10cm), GLDAS (10-40cm) and SMOS. At SMARA station we find a correlation only between GLDAS (10-40cm) and the previous month of precipitation measurement.