Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-11-75-2022
Research article
 | 
16 Feb 2022
Research article |  | 16 Feb 2022

Assessing the feasibility of a directional cosmic-ray neutron sensing sensor for estimating soil moisture

Till Francke, Maik Heistermann, Markus Köhli, Christian Budach, Martin Schrön, and Sascha E. Oswald

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on gi-2021-18', Anonymous Referee #1, 20 Aug 2021
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Till Francke, 09 Sep 2021
      • RC2: 'Comments', Anonymous Referee #2, 09 Dec 2021
  • RC3: 'Comment on gi-2021-18', Anonymous Referee #3, 13 Dec 2021

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Till Francke on behalf of the Authors (12 Jan 2022)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (19 Jan 2022) by Ciro Apollonio
AR by Till Francke on behalf of the Authors (20 Jan 2022)
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Short summary
Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is a non-invasive tool for measuring hydrogen pools like soil moisture, snow, or vegetation. This study presents a directional shielding approach, aiming to measure in specific directions only. The results show that non-directional neutron transport blurs the signal of the targeted direction. For typical instruments, this does not allow acceptable precision at a daily time resolution. However, the mere statistical distinction of two rates is feasible.