Soil Moisture - Cosmic-Ray Soil Moisture Probe Hydroinnova

Parameter to be measured:

Soil moisture

Method:

3He neutron detector counts cosmic-ray neutrons. Cosmic-ray neutron count is converted to soil moisture via a calibrated relationship.

Calibration:

A rough guideline on the calibration procedure can be found here: File:CosmicCalibration.pdf

Advantages:

Measurement of average soil moisture for a spatial scale of 300 m radius around the measurement device, averaged over depth of several decimetres.

Disadvantages:

Under wet conditions the measurement depth decreases, from 80 cm in dry soils to 10 cm in wet soils. Water bodies (lakes, storage ponds) influence the signal. Biomass growth influences the signal.

What to watch out for:

1) Variability of penetration depth due to changes of mean areal soil moisture in the cosmic-ray footprint.

2) Possible site-specific fitting parameters of equation for soil moisture estimation. This is due to changes of conditions involved on neutron transport.

3) Watch out for significant fluctuations of incoming high-energy cosmic rays.

Price:

11.500 US$ (2010)

Links:

Projects that used the above equipment:

• TERENO

Other related web sites:

• Hydroinnova

References

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Baatz, R., Bogena, H.R., Hendricks Franssen, H.-J., Huisman, J.A., Qu, W., Montzka, C., Vereecken, H.: Calibration of a catchment scale cosmic-ray probe network: A comparison of three parameterization methods, Journal of Hydrology, 2014.

Baatz, R., Bogena, H.R., Hendricks Franssen, H.-J., Huisman, J.A., Qu, W., Montzka, C., Vereecken, H.: An empirical vegetation correction for soil water content quantification using cosmic ray probes, Water Resour. Res., DOI: 10.1002/2014WR016443, 2015.

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Bogena, H.R., Huisman, J.A., Baatz, R., Hendriks-Franssen, H.-J., Vereecken, H.: Accuracy of the cosmic-ray soil water content probe in humid forest ecosystems: The worst case scenario, Water Resour. Res., DOI: 10.1002/wrcr.20463, 2013.

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Desilets, D., Zreda, M.: Footprint diameter for a cosmic-ray soil moisture probe: Theory and Monte Carlo simulations, Water Resour. Res., 49, 3566–3575, DOI: 10.1002/wrcr.20187, 2013.

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Franz, T.E., Zreda, M., Rosolem, R., Ferre, T.P.A.: Field Validation of a Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor Using a Distributed Sensor Network, VADOSE ZONE JOURNAL, 11(4), DOI: 10.2136/vzj2012.0046, 2012.

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Han, X., Hendricks Franssen, H.-J., Rosolem, R., Jin, R., Li, X., Vereecken, H.: Correction of systematic model forcing bias of CLM using assimilation of cosmic-ray Neutrons and land surface temperature: a study in the Heihe Catchment, China, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 19(1), 615-629, DOI: 10.5194/hess-19-615-2015, 2015.

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