Acknowledgements
The authors express their gratitude to the Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar, Rupnagar (Punjab), India for technical support and Dr. Dara Entekhabi, Professor- Bacardi and Stockholm Water Foundations Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) and Science Team Leader of NASA SMAP (Soil Moisture Active Passive) mission, for his valuable appreciation towards developing the final form of this study.