Neutron monitors are ground-based devices that measure the secondary particle population, i.e., neutrons produced by, e.g., galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Due to their functionality, they are integral counters whose flux is proportional to the variation of the input spectrum. However, the measured flux also depends on the geomagnetic position and the static pressure at the monitor's location. To better understand the instrument response, the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, DESY Zeuthen, and the North-West University in Potchefstroom, South Africa, agreed on regular monitoring of the GCR intensity as a function of latitude, by installing a portable device aboard the German research vessel Polarstern in 2012. The vessel is ideally suited for this research campaign because it covers extensive geomagnetic latitudes (i.e., goes from the Arctic to the Antarctic) at least once per year. Since the installation aboard the vessel, 12 latitude scans were performed, allowing us to compute the so-called yield function by experimental means presented in this contribution.

The Kiel team received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 870405. The team would like to thank the crew of the Polarstern and the AWI for supporting our research campaign.

How to cite: Heber, B., Burmeister, S., Giese, H., Herbst, K., Romaneehsen, L., Schwerdt, C., Strauss, D. T., and Walter, M.: Measurements of cosmic rays by a mini neutron monitor aboard the German research vessel Polarstern, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15343, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15343, 2023.

Cosmogenic radionuclide Beryllium ⁷Be concentration is primarily determined by the solar activity level and space weather conditions. The ⁷Be is generated by cosmic ray reactions in the stratosphere and in the upper troposphere, binds to atmospheric aerosols and is transported horizontally and vertically by wind and gravity. The highest values of cosmic radiation are observed during the solar minima because, at that time the penetrability of the Earth’s and Sun magnetosphere is greatest.

The concentrations of the radionuclide ⁷Be are reliable indicators of various atmospheric processes. In our work, we try to contribute to better understanding of the dynamics of processes by associating them with long-term trends of stratospheric temperature dynamics. We investigate the coupling of concentrations of the cosmogenic radionuclide ⁷Be in the longitudinal view during the years 1986–2022 (time series of activity concentration of ⁷Be in aerosols evaluated by the corresponding activity in aerosols on a weekly basis at the National Radiation Protection Institute Monitoring Section in Prague) to space weather parameters (Kp planetary index, disturbance storm time Dst, proton density, proton flux), and stratospheric dynamics parameters (temperature, zonal component of wind, O₃). On short timescales the intensity of cosmic radiation decreases by few percent in several days. On a longer timescale the intensity of galactic cosmic rays is strongly influenced by the degree of solar activity and by variations in the geomagnetic field. This corresponds with findings that the zonal wind climatology differences were largest in the decades of 2000–2010 than between others observed decades.

How to cite: Podolská, K., Kozubek, M., Hýža, M., and Šindelářová, T.: The concentration of cosmogenic radionuclide 7Be from the perspective of space weather and long-term trends in the stratospheric temperature and wind, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-6045, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6045, 2023.

Neutron monitors on the Earth’s surface are usually used to observe the dynamics of highly energetic cosmic-ray particles, assuming that local environmental conditions do not influence the measurement. In another young research field, low-energy cosmic-ray neutrons are used to monitor local dynamics of environmental water content. 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 are operated on natural or agricultural sites all around the world. 

A major issue is the modulation of the neutron flux by the dynamics of incoming high-energy cosmogenic particles. 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.

To test the traditional correction approaches for incoming cosmic radiation, air pressure, and air humidity, an experimental setup should avoid any influence of changes due to soil moisture. Therefore, a set of neutron detectors have been deployed in a buoy at the center of a lake for six months. The measurement period also included a Forbush Decrease in September, 2014. 

We found that the neutron signals correlated with air pressure, air humidity, and secondary cosmic radiation. The thermal neutron response to air humidity has been revealed to be different from the epithermal neutron response, while air pressure and incoming radiation similarly   influenced the thermal and epithermal signals. The results have been used to evaluate different existing strategies for air humidity correction of low-energy neutron data. Additionally, the potential effect of lake temperature on the thermal neutron count rate has been investigated. We have also analyzed the performance of the buoy  signal together with different neutron monitors in their capability to correct for the changes of incoming radiation and for the Forbush Decrease during the measurement period.

Overall, the study demonstrates how low-energy neutron detectors on a buoy  could be used to assess the influence of atmospheric and cosmogenic factors on the signal without the influence of soils. Despite the low count rate over water, the general principle could also serve as an alternative to remote neutron monitors as a more local reference signal at more comparable energies.

How to cite: Schrön, M., Rasche, D., Weimar, J., Köhli, M., Boehrer, B., Dietrich, P., and Zacharias, S.: Buoy-based detection of low-energy cosmic-ray neutrons to monitor the influence of atmospheric effects, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-15523, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-15523, 2023.

Cosmic-ray neutron sensors buried below a snow pack provide a passive and autonomous monitoring technique of snow water equivalent (SWE). The effective neutron flux is attenuated inside the snow volume resulting in an inverse relationship between neutron intensity and the water equivalent of the snow column above the sensor. Neutrons are moderated and absorbed within the snow. Simultaneously, highly energetic cosmic rays produce further neutrons via spallation and evaporation processes. A comprehensive assessment of the neutron flux therefore requires multi-particle simulations which involve all relevant incoming particle species and transient particles from cosmic-ray showers which play a crucial role in neutron production.

In our study, we used the Monte Carlo toolkit MCNP6 and validated its high-energy evaporation and spallation models against a measured data set of a neutron intensity profile in water. Based on that we fitted analytical functions to a large variety of simulation setups that describe the neutron intensity as a function of SWE and the moisture content of the soil below the sensor. Moreover, single-particle tracking revealed that the radial footprint of the method does not exceed few meters for detectors below thick snow layers. In the case of shallow snow, however, the diffusive long-range neutron flux in the atmosphere may penetrate through the snow pack to the buried sensor and thereby increases the influence of distant objects. Since the diffusive flux is further sensitive to the atmospheric water content, we developed an air humidity correction tailored to snow-buried neutron detectors.

In general, the study aims at a holistic understanding of neutron production and transport processes in snow and the adjacent soil and air volumes in order to improve SWE monitoring by buried cosmic-ray neutron sensors and compares the simulation results to field data.

How to cite: Weimar, J., Schattan, P., Gugerli, R., Fersch, B., Desilets, D., Schrön, M., Köhli, M., and Schmidt, U.: Cosmic-ray neutron production and propagation inside snow packs characterized by multi-particle Monte Carlo simulations, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17487, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17487, 2023.

Soil moisture (SM) sensors are widely used to monitor soil water dynamics and support irrigation management with the aim of achieving better yields while reducing water consumption. Unfortunately, due to the small measuring volume of point-scale sensors, their soil moisture readings are often not representative for heterogeneous agricultural fields. Therefore, in such cases, sensors with larger sensing volume are needed to address spatially variable SM. A suitable technique is the cosmic ray neutron sensor (CRNS) as it integrates SM over a large volume with a radius of ~130-210 m and a penetration depth of ~15-85 cm. The CRNS method is based on the inverse relationship between measured environmental neutron density and the presence of hydrogen pools (e.g., SM) in the instrument surroundings. However, the ability of CRNS to accurately monitor areas with complex SM heterogeneities (e.g., small irrigated fields) and the influence of detector design were not yet investigated. In this study, we used the neutron transport model URANOS to simulate the effect of SM variations on a CRNS placed in the centre of squared irrigated fields (0.5 to 8 ha dimensions). For this, SM in the irrigated field and in the surrounding was altered between 0.05 and 0.50 cm³ cm^-3 (500 simulations in total). In addition, we investigated the effect of employing high-density polyethylene (HDPE) moderators with different thickness (5 to 35 mm) as well as a 25 mm HDPE moderator with an additional gadolinium oxide thermal shielding. Results showed that, in heterogeneous SM scenarios, the 2 e-folding lengths footprint (R86) can become smaller or larger than what previous studies showed in homogeneous SM distributions. In addition, a thin HDPE moderator will result in relatively smaller R86 whereas thicker moderators and the addition of a thermal shielding will result in relatively larger R86. However, we found that a relatively small footprint is not directly related to a better monitoring of SM nearby the instrument. In fact, in all the investigated field dimensions, the 25mm HDPE moderator with gadolinium shielding showed the largest values of R86 but also the largest variations of detected neutrons with changing SM. In addition, such moderator showed the highest chances of detecting irrigation events that increase SM by 0.05 or 0.10 cm³ cm^-3 in the irrigated area. Generally, detection was uncertain only for SM variations of 0.05 cm³ cm^-3 in fields of 0.5 ha when initial SM was 0.02 cm³ cm^-3 or higher. Although the results of this study suggest the feasibility of monitoring and informing irrigation with CRNS, we found that SM variations outside the irrigated field have a considerable influence on CRNS measurements. Especially in fields of 0.5 and 1 ha dimension, it can be impossible to distinguish whether a relative change in detected neutrons is due to irrigation or to SM variations in the surroundings. These results are relevant for irrigation monitoring and the combination of neutron transport simulations and real-world installations has the potential to establish CRNS as a decision support system for irrigation management.

How to cite: Bogena, H., Brogi, C., Köhli, M., Hendricks Franssen, H.-J., Dombrowski, O., and Huisman, J. A.: Effects of heterogeneous soil moisture distributions in cosmic-ray neutron sensing - the case of irrigation monitoring, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-3095, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-3095, 2023.

Biomass estimation is important in many applications, such as carbon sequestration and precision agriculture. Developing a reliable method for biomass estimation from satellite, airborne and near-surface remote sensing sensors is an ongoing task due to the large uncertainty in current methods, which are often related to sensor limitations. Indeed, signals from optical sensors and synthetic aperture radar at high and medium frequencies suffer from saturation issues at high biomass levels. The Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) is a new non-invasive near-surface sensor used primarily to estimate soil water content (SWC), but it has also shown potential for retrieving other hydrological and environmental parameters such as biomass water equivalent and snow depth. The CRNS detects and counts the number of neutrons controlled by hydrogen atoms in the soil, air just above the ground, and vegetation. Biomass attenuates the intensity of cosmic ray neutrons, hence the ability to estimate biomass from a CRNS. Recent studies have used CRNS measurements to estimate biomass changes in crop areas and forest stands, while the use of CRNSs in orchards is limited. The objective of this study is to explore the potential of two CRNSs to estimate the biomass variation in irrigated cherry and olive tree orchards. The olive tree orchard is located in an arid region in northern Saudi Arabia (plantation density of 1667 trees/hectare) with an average tree height of 3 m and canopy diameter of 2 m. The cherry field is located in southern France (plantation density of 260 trees/hectare) with an average tree height of 3.5 m and canopy diameter of 5.5 m. Several soil moisture probes recording soil water content (SWC) at 15-min intervals at both sites were installed at different depths within the CRNS footprint. SWC measurements were used to assess the variations in the sensitivity of CRNS to soil moisture with increasing biomass. Tree parameters (height, canopy width, canopy length, leaf area index, and diameter at breast height) were measured in situ to estimate biomass using allometric equations. In addition, repetitive Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) scanning was performed over the cherry field to detect canopy volume changes over time. The results showed that the CRNS is sensitive to SWC variation, and this sensitivity is controlled by biomass evolution, indicating that CNRS measurements can also be used to estimate biomass. The sensitivity of CRNS neutron counts to SWC in the early season (before blooming) was twice as high as that during the mid- and late growing seasons (maximum leaf cover). The Cornish Pasdy model­, which models the measured neutron counts as a function of SWC and biomass contribution, was calibrated and then inverted to estimate the biomass in the cherry and olive tree orchards. 

How to cite: Al-Mashharawi, S. K., El Hajj, M. M., Johansen, K., McCabe, M. F., and Steele-Dunne, S.: Sensitivity of the Cosmic Ray Neutron Sensor (CRNS) to Seasonal Biomass Dynamics in Cherry and Olive Orchards, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-6789, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-6789, 2023.

Cosmic ray neutron sensor (CRNS) technology is becoming increasingly popular for monitoring volumetric soil water content (SWC) at the field (hectare) scale in a variety of environments. Applications include permanently installed (stationary) or the use of mobile (rover, trains, etc.) platforms. In agricultural settings, permanently installed CRNS have proven particularly useful for providing time series of footprint average SWC estimates. To derive the SWC product at a site, CRNS needs to be calibrated using gravimetric SWC, soil organic matter and bulk density (BD). Those variables may in the best case be derived from a large number of soil samples, collected ideally on multiple occasions and under a range of hydrometeorological conditions. Most CRNS applications use an average site-specific value of bulk density derived for a site from ≥1 field calibration and it is considered static over time.

However, while this is a safe assumption for many environments, in agricultural settings, management activities (e.g. tillage) may introduce substantial changes in BD over time. This may affect the accuracy of the CRNS SWC estimates, which in turn could affect management decisions (e.g. on irrigation) or modelling efforts, relying on these SWC inputs.

The importance of BD as a source of uncertainty in CRNS SWC estimation has been recognized with dedicated laboratory and neutron simulation experiments quantifying the effects. However, field-based studies are lacking. Therefore, the objective of this work is to quantify the impact and relevance of temporal variability in soil bulk density on the estimation of CRNS SWC in a variety of environments with different level of agricultural land use management. We used data from three sites (Scotland, Germany and China) with stationary CRNS, where BD was sampled on ≥3 or more occasions for sensor calibration. The sites display a varying intensity of land use management, cover different soil types and contrasting weather conditions. We quantify the differences in estimates of SWC by using the range of average BD values at a site and compare these differences to other sources of uncertainty (e.g. the integration time of neutron counts). We additionally consider existing theories on the interaction of neutrons and soil bulk density to evaluate the impact of BD changes. Finally, we make recommendations on when BD variability and thus its sampling over time may become important for the derivation of CRNS SWC outputs.

How to cite: Dimitrova Petrova, K., Scheiffele, L., Verrot, L., Schrön, M., and Geris, J.: Impact and relevance of soil density changes on cosmic-ray neutron sensing for soil water estimation, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-16004, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-16004, 2023.

Monitoring soil moisture at depths greater than one meter is generally challenging and often highly invasive as it requires opening large soil pits. As a result, this deeper vadose zone is often not monitored at all. On top of that, conventional soil moisture sensors usually have only a small measurement volume. On the other hand, soil moisture estimates derived from above-ground Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing (CRNS) are a representative average over an area of several hectares but only of the upper half meter of the soil. To this day, it is commonly believed that cosmic radiation cannot be used to monitor soil water content below this depth. As a consequence, large parts of the root-zone and deeper unsaturated zone have remained outside the observational window of the method. The estimation of soil moisture in greater depths typically requires additional invasive measurements, other active geophysical methods, or mathematical models which extrapolate surface soil moisture observations.

Against this background, we investigated the possibility of using passive detection of cosmogenic neutrons in existing monitoring infrastructure (e.g. groundwater wells). We hypothesized that this method provides a larger measurement volume than traditional techniques based on active neutron probes while requiring less safety restrictions.

Our neutron transport simulations demonstrated that this downhole-CRNS technique would be sensitive enough to detect changes of water content in depths down to 5 meters and above, depending on the temporal resolution of measurements. The simulations also revealed a large measurement radius of several tens of cm depending on the soil moisture content and soil bulk density.

From the theoretical results we derived a functional relationship between soil moisture and detectable neutrons and tested it in a groundwater observation well. Additional installations of supporting soil moisture sensors have been used to validate the model predictions as well as the neutron signals monitored by the CRNS detector. The study demonstrated the general applicability of downhole Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing for the estimation of soil moisture in greater depths and at temporal resolution of two days.

How to cite: Rasche, D., Weimar, J., Schrön, M., Köhli, M., Morgner, M., Güntner, A., and Blume, T.: Monitoring soil moisture in the deeper vadose zone: A new approach using groundwater observation wells and cosmic ray neutrons, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11326, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11326, 2023.

Experiments during recent years with SEVAN detectors on mountain tops in Armenia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria reveal the broad potential of SEVAN detectors; The SEVAN detector on Lomnicky Stit (Slovakia) measured the largest thunderstorm ground enhancements (TGE), with particle fluxes exceeding the background 100-times. With muon and gamma ray fluxes, the maximum values of the potential difference in thunderclouds were measured, equal to 350 MV at Mt. Aragats, and 500 MV at the sharp peak of Lomnicky Stit. In Nov 2019, SEVAN detectors were installed at DESY (Hamburg and Zeuthen sites). Fluxes of electrons, photons, and muons and weather parameters are continuously monitored at all sites (at different latitudes, longitudes, and altitudes). To fully exploit the scientific potential of the SEVAN detectors, in 2023 is planned to install a new detector in the Umwelt-Forschungs-Station (UFS, Schneefernerhaus, 2650 m asl) near the top of the Zugspitze (2962 m), a site with a long history of atmospheric research. The new SEVAN module will be compact (SEVAN-light), and will enable the energy spectra measurements in the range from 0.3 to 50 MeV, allowing unambiguously separating Radon progeny gamma radiation from runaway electron-photon avalanches.

How to cite: Karapetyan, T., Chilingarian, A., and Sargsyan, B.: SEVAN European particle detector network for the atmospheric, solar and space weather studies, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 23–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-11905, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-11905, 2023.