Integral quantification of seasonal soil moisture changes in farmland by cosmic-ray neutrons
Abstract. The measurement of soil moisture at the plot or hill-slope scale is an important link between local vadose zone hydrology and catchment hydrology. However, so far only a few methods are on the way to close this gap between point measurements and remote sensing. One method that could determine an integral soil moisture at this scale is the so called cosmic ray sensing that was introduced to soil hydrology very recently the first time. The present study performed cosmic ray sensing at an agricultural field in a Central European lowland. To test the method it was accompanied by other soil moisture measurements for a summer period with corn crops growing on the field and a later autumn-winter period without crops and a longer period of snow cover. Additionally, meteorological data and above-ground crop biomass was included into the evaluation. Hourly values of cosmic ray sensing showed a high statistical variability. Six-hourly values corresponded well with classical soil moisture measurements, after calibration based on one dry and three wet periods of a few days each. Crop biomass seemed to influence the measurements only to minor degree, opposed to snow cover which has a more substantial impact on the measurements. The latter could be quantitatively related to count rates in two different variants of cosmic ray counters. Overall, our study outlines a procedure to apply the cosmic ray sensing method based on devices now commercially available, without the need for accompanying numerical simulations and suited for longer monitoring periods after initial calibration.