576 
  
  
may be frozen. Therefore also the 
November and March maps must be 
interpreted carefully. Hungary is 
under the influence of a continental 
climate and receives precipitation 
mainly from air masses coming from the 
North Atlantic. The comparison with 
Figures 2 to 3 shows that over Hungary 
precipitation is in general higher and 
more evenly distributed over the year 
than over the Iberian Peninsula and 
Mali, which was to be expected. The 
interannual comparison of the soil 
moisture conditions in the period May 
to August suggest that rainfall was 
less abundant in 1992 and 1993 than in 
1994 and 1995. Again. this trend is 
also present in crop production 
figures (In Hungary irrigation can be 
regarded negligible and dry soil 
conditions are thus of influence on 
the production). Total cereal 
production (mainly maize, wheat and 
barley) was 9976000 tons in 1992, 
8515000 tons. in 1993, 11710000 tons. in 
1994, and... 11112000 tons in . 1995 
(source: FAO). 
4. SUMMARY 
The seasonal trend of soil moisture 
conditions of three climatic zones as 
depicted with the ERS Scatterometer 
was analysed qualitatively. The 
precipitation patterns - of the 
considered climatic regions 
(Mediterranean, wet-dry tropical, and 
moist continental climate) are well 
reflected in the remotely sensed soil 
moisture maps. Also year to year 
differences in soil moisture 
conditions were analysed qualitatively 
and contrasted with agricultural 
Statistics. Similar trends could be 
discerned. These results suggest that 
the presented technique for retrieving 
soil moisture from ERS Scatterometer 
might be useful for climate change 
studies. 
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Lawford, R. G., 1992. An overview of 
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Lecomte, P., E.P.W. Attema, 1992. 
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Wagner, W., J. Noll, M. Borgeaud, H. 
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