Bremen 2017 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 4: Boden- und Agrarphysik

UP 4.2: Talk

Tuesday, March 14, 2017, 16:00–16:15, GW2 B3009

Soil moisture measurement at the hectometer scale with cosmic-ray neutrons — •Markus Köhli¹, Jannis Weimar¹, Martin Schrön², and Ulrich Schmidt¹ — ¹Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany — ²Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung, UFZ, Leipzig

Soil Moisture at the hectometer scale has turned out to be feasible by detecting environmental albedo neutron density. This non-invasive technique relies on the measurement of neutrons originating from cosmic particle air showers and reflected by the soil. The key characteristic of the method is the exceptionally high moderation strength of hydrogen. It slows down fast neutrons whereas other heavier elements independent of the chemical composition rather reflect them. In the recent years the interest was set to understanding neutron transport - and therefore the footprint of the method - by Monte-Carlo simulations. Meanwhile a manifold of experiments have been conducted targeting different characteristics of the method. This especially allows data interpretation for mobile applications, which is the current focus of development in Heidelberg and which will be presented in this talk.