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T. Vishel, G. Pegram, S. Sinclair, W. Wagner, A. Bartsch:
"Comparison of soil moisture fields estimated by catchment modelling and remote sensing: a case study in South Africa";
Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 12 (2008), 3; 751 - 767.

The paper compares two independent approaches to estimate soil moisture at the regional scale over a 4625 km2 catchment (Liebenbergsvlei, South Africa). The first estimate is derived from a physically-based hydrological model (TOPKAPI). The second estimate is derived from the scatterometer on board the European Remote Sensing satellite (ERS). Results show a good correspondence between the modelled and remotely sensed soil moisture, particularly with respect to the soil moisture dynamic, illustrated over two selected seasons of 8 months, yielding regression R2 coefficients lying between 0.68 and 0.92. Such a close similarity between these two different, independent approaches is very promising for (i) remote sensing in general (ii) the use of hydrological models to back-calculate and disaggregate
the satellite soil moisture estimate and (iii) for hydrological
models to assimilate the remotely sensed soil moisture.