Dresden 2011 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 5: Hydrosphere

UP 5.2: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 16. März 2011, 17:30–17:45, HSZ 201

Non-invasive detection of soil water content at intermediate field scale using natural neutrons from cosmic radiation — •Sascha Oswald, Carlos Rivera Villarreyes, and Gabriele Baroni — Universität Potsdam, Institut für Erd und Umweltwissenschaften

The amount of water in the subsurface is a key factor influencing soil hydrology, run-off, evapotranspiration and plant development. A new measurement method is the so called cosmic ray method, recently introduced for soil moisture measurements by Zreda and coworkers. Secondary neutron fluxes, product of the interaction of primary cosmic-rays at the land surface, are strongly moderated by the presence of water in or above soil (soil moisture, snow and biomass water). Neutron counts at the ground/air interface represent a valuable observation at intermediate spatial scale which can be used to quantify stored water while distinguishing different water holding compartments at the land surface. We have performed such measurements in an agricultural field, in comparison with classical soil moisture measurement at a number of point locations. We discuss how to extract soil moisture values from the neutron counts, drawbacks of the method, but also that the results show a temporal development supported by the accompanying data.