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Topic · Environmental Engineering

Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing

Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing is a research topic within Environmental Engineering. Science Explorer counts 26k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on the remote sensing of soil moisture using satellite observations, data assimilation techniques, and hydrological modeling. It explores the spatial variability, temporal dynamics, and validation of soil moisture measurements at global scales. The research aims to improve our understanding of soil moisture patterns and their implications for water resource management.

  • Remote Sensing
  • Soil Moisture
  • Satellite Observations
  • Data Assimilation
  • Hydrological Modeling
  • Global Monitoring
  • Microwave Retrieval
  • Spatial Variability
  • Temporal Dynamics
  • Validation
Research works
26k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
2.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+14%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
China
44% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing

Which countries lead Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing research?

By volume, China and the United States publish the most (2.1k and 1.1k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 China 2.1k works
  2. 2 United States 1.1k works
  3. 3 India 405 works
  4. 4 Germany 260 works
  5. 5 Italy 225 works
  6. 6 France 194 works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 131 works
  8. 8 Japan 125 works
  9. 9 Canada 125 works
  10. 10 Spain 109 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 43.7%United States: 22.9%India: 8.6%Germany: 5.5%6 others listed: 19.3%44%largest
China2,058 · 43.7%United States1,078 · 22.9%India405 · 8.6%Germany260 · 5.5%6 others listed909 · 19.3%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing research, followed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 287 works
  2. 2 Lawrence Berkeley National LaboratoryUnited States 201 works
  3. 3 Helmholtz Association of German Research CentresGermany 92 works
  4. 4 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 60 works
  5. 5 Wuhan UniversityChina 54 works
  6. 6 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 50 works
  7. 7 California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 45 works
  8. 8 National Research CouncilItaly 44 works
  9. 9 Hohai UniversityChina 43 works
  10. 10 Beijing Normal UniversityChina 41 works

Who are the leading researchers in Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing include Martin McKee, Philippe Ciais and Michael Phillips.

  1. 1 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
  2. 2 Philippe Ciais France 237k citations
  3. 3 Michael Phillips Australia 199k citations
  4. 4 Josep Peñuelas Spain 160k citations
  5. 5 Robert B. Jackson United States 149k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing?

The most cited paper in Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing is "The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission" (T. G. Farr, P. A. Rosen, E.R. Caro et al., 2007), with 8,992 citations. Next come "Stable isotopes in precipitation" (8,441) and "Investigating soil moisture–climate interactions in a changing climate: A review" (5,855).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission T. G. Farr, P. A. Rosen, E.R. Caro et al. · Reviews of Geophysics Open access 19 May 2007 8,992
2 Stable isotopes in precipitation W. Dansgaard · Tellus Nov 1964 8,441
3 Investigating soil moisture–climate interactions in a changing climate: A review Sonia Isabelle Seneviratne, T. Corti, Édouard L. Davin et al. · Earth-Science Reviews 15 Feb 2010 5,855
4 The Global Land Data Assimilation System Matthew Rodell, Paul R. Houser, U. Jambor et al. · Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society Open access Mar 2004 5,841
5 Permanent scatterers in SAR interferometry A. Ferretti, C. Prati, F. Rocca · IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing 2001 5,555
All 97 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing research done?

The largest centres of Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Berkeley (United States), Nanjing (China) and Wuhan (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Greenbelt, Berkeley and Jülich.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 653 works
  2. 2 BerkeleyUnited States 207 works
  3. 3 NanjingChina 159 works
  4. 4 WuhanChina 130 works
  5. 5 Xi'anChina 88 works
  6. 6 ShanghaiChina 79 works
  7. 7 ChengduChina 70 works
  8. 8 ParisFrance 66 works
  9. 9 ChangshaChina 56 works
  10. 10 LanzhouChina 53 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GreenbeltUS · 24.9 works43×
  2. BerkeleyUS · 207.1 works28×
  3. JülichDE · 26.0 works17×
  4. PasadenaUS · 45.2 works17×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing than the world average.

See Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing on the map

Where is the best place to study Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing?

Among universities, judged by research, Hohai University, Wuhan University and Northwest A&F University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 19.87%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Luxemb…Northwest A&F Univer…Hohai UniversityWuhan University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Hohai UniversityChina 66.615.5%13.7×43 +49.3%
2Wuhan UniversityChina 66.215.5%7.2×54 +49.9%
3Northwest A&F UniversityChina 65.725.6%9.5×20 +62.8%
4University of LuxembourgLuxembourg 65.739.5%6.6×8 +83.1%
5Beijing Normal UniversityChina 63.116.8%9.7×41 +14.3%
6University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 59.515.0%5.7×50 +3.4%
7Nanjing University of Information Science and TechnologyChina 57.39.1%17.3×37 +54.4%
8Memorial University of NewfoundlandCanada 55.026.0%8.8×10 +30.7%
9California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 54.211.9%23.4×45 -28.8%
10Xinjiang UniversityChina 54.223.8%5.7×13 +199.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing, country by country

Is Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 14% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.021% in 2024.

still counting0.020%0.040%0.060%Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing0.027% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Soil Moisture and Remote Sensing10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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