Most attempts at predicting soil moisture from C-band microwave backscattering coefficients for bare soil are made by fitting experimental calibration relations obtained for limited ranges of incidence angle and soil surface roughness. In this paper, a more general approach is discussed using an inversion procedure to extend the use of a single experimental calibration relation to a wider range of incidence angle and surface roughness. A correcting function is proposed to normalize the backscattering coefficients to the conditions (incidence angle and surface roughness) of the calibration relation. This correcting function was derived from simulated data using the physical optics or KirchhofTs scatter model using the scalar approximation. Before discussing the inversion procedure, the backscattering coefficients calculated by the model have been compared with experimental data measured in the C-band, HH polarization and three incidence angles (Θ= 15°, 23°, 50°) under a wide range of surface soil moisture conditions (0.02⩾Hv⩾ 0.35cm3cm-3) and for a single quite smooth soil surface roughness (0–011⩾s⩾ OOI4/n)m. The model was found to be experimentally validated from 15° to 23° of incidence and for surface soil moistures higher than 0-I0cm3cm-3. For the inversion procedure, it is assumed to have a wider range of validity (15° ⩾ Θ 35° ) for ihc incidence angle. A sensitivity analysis of the model to errors on roughness parameter and incidence angle was performed in order to assess the feasability and suitability of the described inversion procedure.