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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">ESSDD</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>Earth System Science Data Discussions</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">ESSDD</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss.</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub">1866-3591</issn>
<publisher><publisher-name></publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/essd-2026-563</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>A National Depth-Resolved Soil-Moisture-to-Electromagnetic Proxy Database for Hydrogeophysical Monitoring</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sheishah</surname>
<given-names>Diaa</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2050-6474</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Abdelsamei</surname>
<given-names>Enas</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Blanka-Vegi</surname>
<given-names>Viktoria</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Barta</surname>
<given-names>Károly</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ali</surname>
<given-names>Ahmed M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Abualhin</surname>
<given-names>Khaldoun</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Al-Halbouni</surname>
<given-names>Djamil</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2254-3914</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Dorigo</surname>
<given-names>Wouter</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8054-7572</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sipos</surname>
<given-names>Gyorgy</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>University of Szeged, Department of Physical and Environmental Geography, 6722 Szeged, Egyetem u. 2-6., Hungary</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics, 11421, El Marsad st., Helwan, Cairo, Egypt</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Geodesy and Geoinformation, Technische Universitaet Wien (TU Wien), Vienna, Austria</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Earth System Science and Remote Sensing, University of Leipzig, Talstr. 35, 04103 Leipzig, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>23</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>50</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Diaa Sheishah et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-563/">This article is available from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-563/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-563/essd-2026-563.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://essd.copernicus.org/preprints/essd-2026-563/essd-2026-563.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Soil moisture is a key control on drought, recharge, crop water availability, agricultural water management, and land-atmosphere exchange, but its depth-resolved spatial variability remains difficult to monitor over large areas. Non-invasive methods such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR), electrical resistivity, and electromagnetic surveys can support soil-moisture estimation, yet their interpretation depends strongly on soil texture and hydraulic-retention properties. This study develops a national six-depth soil-moisture-to-electromagnetic proxy database to support future GPR- and resistivity-based root-zone monitoring and decision support. We used multi-year soil-moisture, porosity, saturation, texture, and hydraulic-retention data from 117 monitoring stations across Hungary at 10, 20, 30, 45, 60, and 75 cm depth. Dielectric permittivity, EM-wave velocity, electrical conductivity, attenuation, and apparent resistivity were derived as proxy variables from observed soil moisture using established petrophysical relationships, including the Topp equation and an Archie-type formulation. The proxy database identified a consistent 30-45 cm buffering zone, where soil moisture increased to 22.25%, dielectric permittivity peaked at 12.29, EM-wave velocity reached a minimum of 0.0935 m ns⁻&amp;sup1;, and apparent resistivity decreased to 545 &amp;Omega; m. Texture strongly shaped the translated EM response: sandy soils were drier and more resistive, whereas clayey soils retained more water and showed higher dielectric response. Hydraulic-retention variables provided calibration-relevant prior information for explaining why similar EM or resistivity signals may represent different true soil-moisture values across soil types. The framework provides a transferable national calibration layer for drought-monitoring agencies, irrigation planners, precision-agriculture users, and future drone-based geophysical surveys in regions with comparable monitoring and soil databases.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="50"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Szegedi Tudományegyetem</funding-source>
<award-id>8871</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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