München 2019 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 6: Remote sensing and data analysis methods

UP 6.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 15:30–15:45, HS 22

Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensing with novel neutron detectors — •Markus Köhli^1,2, Jannis Weimar¹, Fabian Allmendinger¹, Fabian Schmidt², and Ulrich Schmidt¹ — ¹Physikalisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Deutschland — ²Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Deutschland

The method of cosmic ray neutron sensing - measuring soil moisture non-invasively at the hectometer scale has turned out to be feasible by detecting the environmental albedo neutron density. The key feature of the method is that neutrons generated by cosmic rays show an exceptionally different behavior interacting with hydrogen. It slows down fast neutrons whereas any other heavier element, independent of the chemical composition, rather reflects them. In the recent years the understanding of neutron transport by Monte Carlo simulations led to major advancements in precision, which have been successfully targeted meanwhile by a manifold of experiments. We are now developing boron-lined neutron detectors using spin-off technologies from the upcoming European Spallation Source and instrument design experience from past experiments. These detectors shall also offer an alternative platform to current Helium-3 based systems. In order to reduce costs we recently have developed readout electronics and data acquistion systems based on Arduino microcontrollers.