TY  - GEN
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Heistermann, Maik
A1  - Köhli, Markus
A1  - Budach, Christian
A1  - Schrön, Martin
A1  - Oswald, Sascha
T1  - Assessing the feasibility of a directional cosmic-ray neutron sensing sensor for estimating soil moisture
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe
N2  - Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive tool for measuring hydrogen pools such as soil moisture, snow or vegetation. The intrinsic integration over a radial hectare-scale footprint is a clear advantage for averaging out small-scale heterogeneity, but on the other hand the data may become hard to interpret in complex terrain with patchy land use.

This study presents a directional shielding approach to prevent neutrons from certain angles from being counted while counting neutrons entering the detector from other angles and explores its potential to gain a sharper horizontal view on the surrounding soil moisture distribution.

Using the Monte Carlo code URANOS (Ultra Rapid Neutron-Only Simulation), we modelled the effect of additional polyethylene shields on the horizontal field of view and assessed its impact on the epithermal count rate, propagated uncertainties and aggregation time.

The results demonstrate that directional CRNS measurements are strongly dominated by isotropic neutron transport, which dilutes the signal of the targeted direction especially from the far field. For typical count rates of customary CRNS stations, directional shielding of half-spaces could not lead to acceptable precision at a daily time resolution. However, the mere statistical distinction of two rates should be feasible.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1228 
KW  - water-balance
KW  - quantification
KW  - calibration
KW  - validation
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-544229
SN  - 1866-8372
SP  - 75
EP  - 92
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Francke, Till
A1  - Heistermann, Maik
A1  - Köhli, Markus
A1  - Budach, Christian
A1  - Schrön, Martin
A1  - Oswald, Sascha
T1  - Assessing the feasibility of a directional cosmic-ray neutron sensing sensor for estimating soil moisture
JF  - Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems
N2  - Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive tool for measuring hydrogen pools such as soil moisture, snow or vegetation. The intrinsic integration over a radial hectare-scale footprint is a clear advantage for averaging out small-scale heterogeneity, but on the other hand the data may become hard to interpret in complex terrain with patchy land use.

This study presents a directional shielding approach to prevent neutrons from certain angles from being counted while counting neutrons entering the detector from other angles and explores its potential to gain a sharper horizontal view on the surrounding soil moisture distribution.

Using the Monte Carlo code URANOS (Ultra Rapid Neutron-Only Simulation), we modelled the effect of additional polyethylene shields on the horizontal field of view and assessed its impact on the epithermal count rate, propagated uncertainties and aggregation time.

The results demonstrate that directional CRNS measurements are strongly dominated by isotropic neutron transport, which dilutes the signal of the targeted direction especially from the far field. For typical count rates of customary CRNS stations, directional shielding of half-spaces could not lead to acceptable precision at a daily time resolution. However, the mere statistical distinction of two rates should be feasible.
KW  - water-balance
KW  - quantification
KW  - calibration
KW  - validation
Y1  - 2021
U6  - https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022
SN  - 2193-0864
SN  - 2193-0856
VL  - 11
SP  - 75
EP  - 92
PB  - Copernicus Publ.
CY  - Göttingen
ER  -