A semi-empirical model for microwave polarimetric radar backscattering from bare soil surfaces was developed using polarmetric radar measurements and the knowledge based on the theoretical and numerical solutions. The microwave polarimetric backscatter measurements were conducted for bare soil surfaces under a variety of roughness and moisture conditions at L-, C-, and X-band frequencies at incidence angles ranging from 10` to 70`. Since the accrate target parameters as well as the radar parameters are necessary for radar scattering modeling, a complete and accurate set of ground truth data were also collected using a laser profile meter and dielectric probes for each surface condition, from which accurate measurements were made of the rms height, correlation length, and dielectric constant. At first, the angular and spectral dependencies of the measured radar backscatter for a wide range of roughnesses and moisture conditions are examined. Then, the measured scattering behavior was tested using theoretical and numerical solutions. Based on the experimental observations and the theoretical and numerical solutions, a semi-empirical model was developed for backscattering coeffients in terms of the surface roughness parameters and the relative dielectric constant of the soil surface. The model was found to yield very good agreement with the backscattering measurements of this study as well as with independent measurements.