EGU22-12334, updated on 28 Mar 2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12334
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Rail-based cosmic ray neutron sensing (CRNS): pushing the boundaries towards expanding footprints and temporal resolutions

Daniel Altdorff1, Sascha Oswald1, Steffen Zacharias2, Carmen Zengerle2, Hannes Mollenhauer2, Peter Dietrich2, Sabine Attinger3, and Martin Schrön2
Daniel Altdorff et al.
  • 1Potsdam, Institute of Environmental Science and Geography, Subsurface Hydrology, Potsdam, Germany (daniel.altdorff@uni-potsdam.de)
  • 2UFZ Leipzig - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH, Department Monitoring and Exploration Technologies
  • 3UFZ Leipzig - Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research GmbH, Department of Computational Hydrosystems

Cosmic ray neutron sensing (CRNS) has become an established method for deriving the soil water content (SWC), based on the inverse relationship of neutron counting and the SWC of the surrounding area. The provided footprint, lateral up to 200m and vertical of several decimeter, qualifies CRNS to bridge the information gap between classical hydrogeophysical approaches and remote sensing. While stationary CRNS offers continuous long-term SWC measurements at high temporal resolution, the covered area remains fixed and predefined. Car-borne CRNS roving on the other hand, allows to expand the mapped area. However, the method requires active operation and is limited to snap shot information only. As an alternative, the operation of a permanent mobile CRNS platform on trains promises to combine the advantages from stationary and car-borne CRNS measurements, as recently suggested by Schrön et al. (2021), while also its technical implementation, data processing and interpretation raises new challenges and complexity.

In this study we introduce a fully automatic CRNS railway system, installed in a conventional locomotive of a freight train, as first and novel of its kind. Results of the first phase of operation will be presented. The measurements along an experimental rail track were supported by local SWC measurements, gravimetric and dielectric records (Mobile Wireless Ad-hoc Sensor Network), at three areas along the railway, and by a newly installed weather station. Additionally, car-borne CRNS data were recorded on two days close to the railway track.

Preliminary results of data collected between September and December 2021 showed very stable spatial pattern in relation to the segments crossed by the train, which have been confirmed by the car-borne dataset. Temporal variations within hours were also evident as direct or indirect response to local rain and snow events.  Based on the first results, we are confident, that rail-based CRNS offers the chance to play a prominent role in addressing soil hydrology at landscape scale in the future.

Schrön, M., Oswald, S. E., Zacharias, S., Kasner, M., Dietrich, P., & Attinger, S. (2021). Neutrons on rails: Transregional monitoring of soil moisture and snow water equivalent. Geophysical Research Letters, 48, e2021GL093924

 

How to cite: Altdorff, D., Oswald, S., Zacharias, S., Zengerle, C., Mollenhauer, H., Dietrich, P., Attinger, S., and Schrön, M.: Rail-based cosmic ray neutron sensing (CRNS): pushing the boundaries towards expanding footprints and temporal resolutions, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-12334, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-12334, 2022.

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