In the literature, lagged measurements of near-surface SM in microwave band are related with root-zone soil moisture. Thus, I wonder if there are studies that relates them (lagged SM) with drought or flood occurence?
these two studies use the near-surface SMOS soil moisture to build agricultural drought indices:
-Martínez-Fernández et al., (2016). "Satellite soil moisture for agricultural drought monitoring: Assessment of the SMOS derived Soil Water Deficit Index." Remote Sensing of Environment 177: 277-286.
-Sánchez et al., (2016). "A New Soil Moisture Agricultural Drought Index (SMADI) Integrating MODIS and SMOS Products: A Case of Study over the Iberian Peninsula." Remote Sensing 8(4).
In the past two decades microwave remote sensing has proven successful for estimating dielectric content ... monitoring of near-surface (0–5 cm) soil moisture and ocean salinity. .... invasive and noninvasive soil moisture measurement techniques ..... soil moisture, resulting in improved drought or flood forecasting,.