This title appears in the Scientific Report :
2023
Please use the identifier:
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s23052378 in citations.
Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/34089 in citations.
Monitoring Irrigation in Small Orchards with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensors
Monitoring Irrigation in Small Orchards with Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensors
Due to their unique characteristics, cosmic-ray neutron sensors (CRNSs) have potential inmonitoring and informing irrigation management, and thus optimising the use of water resources inagriculture. However, practical methods to monitor small, irrigated fields with CRNSs are currentlynot available a...
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Personal Name(s): | Brogi, Cosimo (Corresponding author) |
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Pisinaras, Vassilios / Köhli, Markus / Dombrowski, Olga / Hendricks Franssen, Harrie-Jan / Babakos, Konstantinos / Chatzi, Anna / Panagopoulos, Andreas / Bogena, Heye Reemt | |
Contributing Institute: |
Agrosphäre; IBG-3 |
Published in: | Sensors, 23 (2023) 5, S. 2378 |
Imprint: |
Basel
MDPI
2023
|
DOI: |
10.3390/s23052378 |
Document Type: |
Journal Article |
Research Program: |
Agro-biogeosystems: controls, feedbacks and impact |
Link: |
OpenAccess |
Publikationsportal JuSER |
Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/34089 in citations.
Due to their unique characteristics, cosmic-ray neutron sensors (CRNSs) have potential inmonitoring and informing irrigation management, and thus optimising the use of water resources inagriculture. However, practical methods to monitor small, irrigated fields with CRNSs are currentlynot available and the challenges of targeting areas smaller than the CRNS sensing volume are mostlyunaddressed. In this study, CRNSs are used to continuously monitor soil moisture (SM) dynamics intwo irrigated apple orchards (Agia, Greece) of ~1.2 ha. The CRNS-derived SM was compared to areference SM obtained by weighting a dense sensor network. In the 2021 irrigation period, CRNSscould only capture the timing of irrigation events, and an ad hoc calibration resulted in improvementsonly in the hours before irrigation (RMSE between 0.020 and 0.035). In 2022, a correction based onneutron transport simulations, and on SM measurements from a non-irrigated location, was tested.In the nearby irrigated field, the proposed correction improved the CRNS-derived SM (from 0.052to 0.031 RMSE) and, most importantly, allowed for monitoring the magnitude of SM dynamics thatare due to irrigation. The results are a step forward in using CRNSs as a decision support system inirrigation management. |