An empirical vegetation correction for soil water content quantification using cosmic ray probes

Baatz, Roland; Bogena, Heye; Franssen, Harrie‐Jan Hendricks; Huisman, Johan Alexander; Montzka, Carsten; Vereecken, Harry

doi:10.1002/2014wr016443

Cited by 142 publications

(204 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…The fast neutron counts were corrected for influences of atmospheric pressure, incoming neutrons and atmospheric humidity, see Baatz et al [86] for more details. A vegetation correction such as that of Baatz et al [60] is not considered so far because of the limited availability of biomass dynamics data at the respective CRNP stations.…”

Section: Cosmic-ray Neutron Probesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2017, 9, 103 4 of 30 these hydrogen sources are temporally stable, their influence can be accounted for by estimating the contribution of each source and subtracting its contribution during the transformation of the neutron counts into volumetric soil moisture contents [52]. Recently, Baatz et al [60] developed a simple empirical approach to correct for biomass effects, which can, in principle, also be applied to temporally dynamic biomass effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Validation of Spaceborne and Modelled Surface Soil Moisture Products with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes

et al. 2017

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Section: Cosmic-ray Neutron Probesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validation of Spaceborne and Modelled Surface Soil Moisture Products with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes

et al. 2017

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“…The correction of influencing factors has also received much attention. The analysis and correction of the influences of atmospheric pressure, water vapor, solar activity and aboveground biomass on the neutrons have been studied (Desilets and Zreda, 2001;Moraal et al, 2005;Rosolem et al, 2013;Coopersmith et al, 2014;McJannet et al, 2014;Baatz et al, 2015) and can improve the accuracy of the CRNS. These studies have built the foundation for the application of the CRNS method (Rivera villarreyes et al, 2011;Bogena et al, 2013;Han et al, 2014;Wang et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Application of cosmic-ray neutron sensing to monitor soil water content in an alpine meadow ecosystem on the northern Tibetan Plateau

Zhu

Shao

Zeng

et al. 2016

Journal of Hydrology

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Keywords: CRNS Soil moisture Alpine meadow Tibetan Plateau s u m m a r y Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a new method for continuously monitoring mean soil water content (SWC) on a hectometer scale. To evaluate the application and accuracy of the method for SWC observation in an alpine meadow ecosystem (AME), we installed the CRNS in a flat meadow near the Naqu prefecture on the northern Tibetan Plateau. We collecting soil samples and applying the system by the oven-drying method. A weather station was also installed near the CRNS for monitoring basic meteorological variables and the soil temperature and water content at various depths. Three Em-50 instruments for monitoring SWC and soil temperature were buried in three sub-quadrats northwest, northeast and southeast of the CRNS at distances of 460, 370 and 373 m, respectively, to observe the variation of SWC at the various depths. The footprint of the CRNS for SWC observation in the meadow was about 580 m, and the mean measuring depth was about 31 cm according to the general calculation equations. The reference neutron flux for dry soil (N 0 ) had a mean and coefficient of variation of 8686 and 3%, respectively, and remained substantially invariant throughout the measuring period. The five SWCs from the independent field samples almost passed through the SWC trend of the CRNS, the root mean square error (RMSE) was 0.011 m 3 m À3 for the CRNS and oven-drying method. The time series of SWC measured by the CRNS agreed well with the mean SWC series to a depth of 20 cm measured by the weather station. The trend of SWC measured by the Em-50s generally agreed with the trend of SWC measured by the CRNS, but some values and variations of SWC differed between the Em-50s and CRNS data. Because of the good agreement between the CRNS and independent field samples, we suspect that this disagreement is due to an insufficient representativeness of point observations and the distances of the points from the CRNS. The diurnal variation of hourly SWC from the CRNS was sinusoidal during a dry period, peaking at 11:00 and was minimum at 18:00 (Beijing time), with a range of 1%. Overall, the CRNS measured SWC in the AME with an acceptable accuracy, providing a scientific basis for the promotion and application of the CRNS in high, cold ecosystems.

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“…Vegetation stores a variable amount of water and it contains hydrogen in the organic material. Recent studies investigated the effect of crop and forest biomass by scaling the neutron counts with an estimation of the biomass water equivalent ( [14], [15]). …”

Section: Hydrogen Pools In the Soil And Vegetationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Environmental Water with Ground Albedo Neutrons from Cosmic Rays

Schrön¹,

Zacharias²,

Köhli³

et al. 2016

Proceedings of the 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference — PoS(ICRC2015)

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Neutron monitors on the Earth's surface are usually used to track the dynamics of incoming cosmic-ray neutrons of high energy under the assumption that local environmental conditions do not influence the highly shielded flux. Oppositely, in a recently established research field the local dynamics of environmental water is monitored by detecting low-energy cosmic-ray neutrons. Water in soil, air, snow and vegetation determines the amount of ground albedo neutrons in the sensitive energy range from 1 eV to 100 keV. Plenty of small neutron detectors have been installed on natural or agricultural sites all around the world Climate research, hydrologic models and irrigation management rely on these measurements, which represent area-average water content within tens of hectares due to the fast diffusion of neutrons in air. A major issue is the modulation of the neutron flux by the dynamics of incoming cosmic-ray neutrons. Conventionally, independent data from neutron monitors are consulted to serve as a reference for the correction of the local detectors. However, the performance of this comparative correction approach is unreliable, because it does not account for geographical displacement, different energy windows of the detectors, or potential influence of atmospheric conditions on the referenced neutron monitor. In addition, neutron monitor stations are sparse on Earth, and occasionally signals from different locations appear to be significantly inconsistent. The presentation shows how ground albedo neutrons from cosmic-rays are used in environmental research and emphasizes the need for a reliable correction for the incoming flux.

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An empirical vegetation correction for soil water content quantification using cosmic ray probes

Cited by 142 publications

References 40 publications

Validation of Spaceborne and Modelled Surface Soil Moisture Products with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes

Validation of Spaceborne and Modelled Surface Soil Moisture Products with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probes

Application of cosmic-ray neutron sensing to monitor soil water content in an alpine meadow ecosystem on the northern Tibetan Plateau

Monitoring Environmental Water with Ground Albedo Neutrons from Cosmic Rays

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