Abstract
Abstract. Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) allows for non-invasive soil moisture estimations at the field scale. The derivation of soil moisture generally relies on secondary cosmic-ray neutrons in the epithermal to fast energy ranges. Most approaches and processing techniques for observed neutron intensities are based on the assumption of homogeneous site conditions or of soil moisture patterns with correlation lengths shorter than the measurement footprint of the neutron detector. However, in view of the non-linear relationship between neutron intensities and soil moisture, it is questionable whether these assumptions are applicable. In this study, we investigated how a non-uniform soil moisture distribution within the footprint impacts the CRNS soil moisture estimation and how the combined use of epithermal and thermal neutrons can be advantageous in this case. Thermal neutrons have lower energies and a substantially smaller measurement footprint around the sensor than epithermal neutrons. Analyses using the URANOS (Ultra RApid Neutron-Only Simulation) Monte Carlo simulations to investigate the measurement footprint dynamics at a study site in northeastern Germany revealed that the thermal footprint mainly covers mineral soils in the near-field to the sensor while the epithermal footprint also covers large areas with organic soils. We found that either combining the observed thermal and epithermal neutron intensities by a rescaling method developed in this study or adjusting all parameters of the transfer function leads to an improved calibration against the reference soil moisture measurements in the near-field compared to the standard approach and using epithermal neutrons alone. We also found that the relationship between thermal and epithermal neutrons provided an indicator for footprint heterogeneity. We, therefore, suggest that the combined use of thermal and epithermal neutrons offers the potential of a spatial disaggregation of the measurement footprint in terms of near- and far-field soil moisture dynamics.
Highlights
Soil moisture is a key variable in the hydrological cycle (e.g. Vereecken et al, 2008, 2014; Seneviratne et al, 2010), driving e.g. energy fluxes, groundwater recharge, runoff generation processes and biomass production, which, in turn, influence climatic variables on varying spatiotemporal scales
We found that the relationship between thermal and epithermal neutrons provided an indicator for footprint heterogeneity
The average integration depth D86 remains constant for thermal neutrons, with an average D86 of 0.27 m if the point of thermalization is considered as the origin, while it is distinctively larger if the maximum depth is used
Summary
Soil moisture is a key variable in the hydrological cycle (e.g. Vereecken et al, 2008, 2014; Seneviratne et al, 2010), driving e.g. energy fluxes, groundwater recharge, runoff generation processes and biomass production, which, in turn, influence climatic variables on varying spatiotemporal scales (see e.g. Daly and Porporato, 2005; Vereecken et al, 2008; Seneviratne et al, 2010; Wang et al, 2018). Soil moisture is a key variable in the hydrological cycle Observations of soil moisture have a high importance for the estimation of landscape water balances and hydrological modelling. These applications would profit especially from field-scale observations covering several hectares. At this scale, the spatial (and temporal) resolution of satellite-derived soil moisture products is too coarse, and in situ soil moisture sensors would need to be installed in very large numbers due to the high spatial variability in soil moisture Rasche et al.: Disentangling heterogeneous soil moisture patterns in CRNS footprints
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