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Important topics in land–atmosphere feedback research are water and energy balances and heterogeneities of fluxes at the land surface and in the atmosphere. To target these questions, the Land–Atmosphere Feedback Observatory (LAFO) has been installed in Germany. The instrumentation allows for comprehensive measurements from the bedrock to the troposphere. The LAFO observation strategy aims for simultaneous measurements in all three compartments: atmosphere, soil and land surface, and vegetation.

In most cases, the soil water content (SWC) measurement is carried out using commercially available dielectric-permittivity-based probes such as time domain reflectometers or frequency domain reflectometers (FDR). However, these probes use transfer functions which may be inadequate in the soil concerned. Raw SWC measurement in clayey soil shows an important relative error. A simple protocol is presented, allowing for the recovery of an acceptable accuracy of the FDR SWC measurements.

Accurate monitoring of water in soil can improve irrigation efficiency, which is important considering climate change and the growing world population. Cosmic-ray neutrons sensors (CRNSs) are a promising tool in irrigation monitoring due to a larger sensed area and to lower maintenance than other ground-based sensors. Here, we analyse the feasibility of irrigation monitoring with CRNSs and the impact of the irrigated field dimensions, of the variations of water in soil, and of instrument design.

The Sweeping Langmuir Probe on board the PICASSO CubeSat was designed to measure plasma parameters. Before launch, the instrument was tested in a plasma chamber. It is shown that the traditional method to interpret the data cannot be applied directly for this type of probe, and an adaptation is proposed. It is reported how, with a reduced number of data points, the plasma parameters can still be retrieved. Finally, the effects of the contamination of the probe surface are discussed.

Lidar networks coordinate efforts of different groups, providing guidelines to homogenize retrievals from different instruments. We describe an ongoing effort to develop the Lidar Processing Pipeline (LPP) collaboratively, a collection of tools developed in C/C++ to handle all the steps of a typical lidar analysis. Analysis of simulations and real lidar data showcases the LPP’s features. From this exercise, we draw a roadmap to guide future development, accommodating the needs of our community.

We describe a new drill for glaciers and ice sheets. Instead of drilling down into the ice, via mechanical action, our drill melts into the ice. Our goal is simply to pull a cable of temperature sensors on a one-way trip down to the ice–bed interface. Here, we describe the design and testing of our drill. Under laboratory conditions, our melt-tip drill has an efficiency of ∼ 35 % with a theoretical maximum penetration rate of ∼ 12 m h⁻¹. Under field conditions, our efficiency is just ∼ 15 %.

This project aims to demonstrate the viability of the development of a concept prototype that has, as a differential, free software and hardware used in its development and operation. It thus has unique characteristics compared with commercially available equipment for signal detection, providing strong rejection of spurious electrical noise, typical of urban areas. This project is important academic contribution to open-source instrumental research.

The study investigates how low-cost technology can be applied in data-scarce catchments to improve water resource management. More specifically, we investigate how drone technology can be combined with low-cost real-time kinematic positioning (RTK) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) equipment and subsequently applied to a 3D hydraulic model so as to generate more physically based rating curves.

We propose a new type of power station unit with wireless data transmission capability, which was not supported by same type of instrument as on the market. Based on this, a novel distributed geophysical data acquisition architecture is also proposed. The proposed instrument loads more stations than the industry-leading LAUL-428 while providing additional wireless data transmission and narrowband Internet of Things remote control.

The expendable current profiler (XCP) is a single-use instrument that rapidly measures currents, including the velocity, flow direction, and temperature of seawater. This study improves upon the design of the XCP to reduce the cost of the single-use devices. This has been achieved by adopting signal modulation and demodulation to transmit analog signals on an enamelled wire and digitizing the signal above the surface of the water.

Meltwater runoff estimates from the Greenland ice sheet contain uncertainty. To better understand ice sheet hydrology, we installed a weather station and river stage sensors along three proglacial rivers in a cold-bedded area of NW Greenland without firn, crevasse, or moulin influence. The first 3 years (2019–2021) of observations have given us a first look at the seasonal and annual weather and hydrological patterns of this understudied region.

Electromagnetic sensors in a drone set-up allow a lot of movability and downscale the cost and risk typically associated with an airborne system. This paper discusses the pros and cons of our newly developed drone-towed sensor system, where we use the controlled-source electromagnetic sensor GEM-2. We conduct six different tests dealing with altitude dependency, temperature drift, transmission frequencies, T and P mode, and drone noise. Additionally, we show a data set collected with the system.

We present the implementation of a VLF/LF network to search for earthquake electromagnetic precursors. The proposed system will deliver a steady stream of real-time amplitude and phase measurements as well as a daily recording VLF/LF data set. The first implementation of the system was done in Graz, Austria. The second one will be in Guyancourt (France), with a third one in Réunion (France) and a fourth one in Moratuwa (Sri Lanka).

Motivated by recent community interest in a satellite mission to the atmospheric lower thermosphere and ionosphere (LTI) region (100–200 km altitude), the DIPCont project is concerned with the reconstruction quality of vertical profiles of key LTI variables using dual- and single-spacecraft observations. The report introduces the probabilistic DIPCont modeling framework, demonstrates its usage by means of a set of self-consistent parametric non-isothermal models, and discusses first results.

This paper proposes a new online data transmission technology for marine controlled-source electromagnetic (MCSEM) transmitters. The technology enables high-precision data acquisition, storage, and ethernet file transmission and offers significant convenience. This technology has the potential to revolutionize the application of MCSEM transmitters in marine explorations and to offer significant convenience.

The paper describes the ground-based camera equipment to obtain images from dust ablation phenomena (meteors) in the Earth's atmosphere. The meteors are observed from two locations, but one station is equipped with a camera containing a spectral grating, which allows following and determining the spectral information through the meteor ablation process. We describe the data merging, calibration, and processing to finally derive the meteor composition.

Potential users of all-sky aurora images even include power companies, tourists, and aurora enthusiasts. However, these potential users are normally not familiar with interpreting these images. To make them comprehensive for more users, we developed an automatic evaluation system of auroral activity level. The method involves two steps: first making a simple set of numbers that describes the auroral activity and then further simplifying them into several levels (Level 6 is an auroral explosion).

Multiple geologic hazards, such as landslides and earthquakes, arise when solids and fluids coexist and deform together. We designed an experimental apparatus that allows us to observe such deformation in 3D. The first results show how fluids and solids deform and break at the same time, allowing us to study the impact of both materials on deformation distribution and speed. Making these processes visible has the potential to improve risk assessments associated with geological hazards.

AERO and VISTA spacecraft will use commercial magnetometers to measure space weather events near Earth’s aurora. The small size of AERO and VISTA necessitate the use of magnetometers with small size, weight, and power. The magnetometers selected exhibit good precision, but additional calibration is needed to achieve good accuracy. This work evaluates a method for calibration by regression which has reduced the magnetic observed error by a factor of ca. 50, meeting mission requirements.