Heidelberg 2015 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 16: Meßtechnik

UP 16.1: Talk

Friday, March 27, 2015, 10:45–11:00, G/gHS

High-precision surface-based Ground-Penetrating Radar monitoring of near-surface hydrological processes — •Patrick Klenk, Stefan Jaumann, and Kurt Roth — Inst. f. Umweltphysik, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 229, 69120 Heidelberg

Throughout the last decade, Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) has been developed as a versatile tool for imaging the sub-surface. Especially its application for observing soil water content, a crucial state variable in soil hydrology, has been investigated, since traditional methods have often proven to be insufficient at the field-scale. For developing high-precision GPR methods for monitoring soil water dynamics, the ASSESS experimental site was constructed close to Heidelberg. This test-site has been designed with a complicated but known subsurface structure to advance the quantification of GPR methods under a wide range of different conditions. Highly dynamic conditions can be induced by either varying the water table position through pumping water into and out of an observation well or by infiltration with a sprinkler system.

We here present a series of time-lapse GPR observations of deliberately induced infiltration, imbibition and drainage processes, which we compare with numerical simulations of both subsurface water flow and the expected GPR response. In particular, we discuss the attainable precision in this well-controlled setup with respect to high-resolution observation of infiltration processes, which is currently about one order of magnitude better than so far demonstrated in the field.