The satellite used for conducting ground water surveys
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Different approaches have been introduced by many researchers from the early 70s until now to detect depth to water table via remote sensing techniques through measuring the different variables influenced by shallow groundwater such as heat capacity, temperature, vegetation characteristics and soil moisture which can provide an evidence of shallow water table depth. Becker (2006) reported that the greater heat capacity of saturated soils when compared with that of dry soils, suggests that thermal remote sensing could be used to estimate depth to water table. Soil temperature measurements from satellites also showed to be correlated with depth to shallow groundwater. ...Predicting hydrologic behavior at regional scales requires heterogeneous data that are often prohibitively expensive to acquire on the ground. As a result, satellite-based remote sensing has become a powerful tool for surface hydrology. Subsurface hydrology has yet to realize the benefits of remote sensing, even though surface expressions of ground water can be monitored from space. Remotely sensed indicators of ground water may provide important data where practical alternatives are not available. The potential for remote sensing of ground water is explored here in the context of active and planned satellite-based sensors. Satellite technology is reviewed with respect to its ability to measure ground water potential, storage, and fluxes. It is argued here that satellite data can be used if ancillary analysis is used to infer ground water behavior from surface expressions. Remotely sensed data are most useful where they are combined with numerical modeling, geographic information systems, and ground-based information.