1 Advances in Soil Moisture Retrieval from Synthetic 1 Aperture Radar and Hydrological Applications 2 3 Kurt C. Kornelsen a , and Paulin Coulibaly a,b 4 5 a School of Geography and Earth Sciences,McMaster University, 1280 Main 6 Street West, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L8 7 b Department of Civil Engineering, McMaster University,1280 Main Street West, 8 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4L8 9 Corresponding Author: Kurt C. Kornelsen 10 Email: kornelkc@mcmaster.ca 11 Phone: 905-525-9140 ext. 27875 12 Fax: 905-546-0463 13 Affiliation: School of Geography and Earth Science, McMaster 14 University 15 Postal Address: School of Geography and Earth Science, 16 McMaster University, 1280 Main St W. Hamilton ON, L8S 4L8 17 18 Abstract 19 20 The sensitivity of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) to soil moisture 21 is well established, however, the retrieval of soil moisture from 22 SAR is confounded by the effects of surface roughness and 23