System Overview
The automatic monitoring system for soil moisture/snow depth in the CRS2000/B area is based on the cosmic ray neutron method and can be used for long-term continuous monitoring of soil moisture/snow depth within a radius of 350 meters in the field; The measurement process is harmless, non-contact, and does not damage the soil structure. It is not affected by the physical state of soil texture, salinity, or soil moisture, and has a large measurement range. It is an effective verification method for remote sensing inversion of ground moisture.

Working principle

Cosmic ray particles in the environment collide with atomic nuclei to generate high-energy neutrons. These high-energy neutrons, when passing through air and soil, undergo elastic collisions with atomic nuclei, especially hydrogen atoms, in the medium, losing some energy and gradually slowing down; The fast and slow neutrons returning to the surface after slowing down reach equilibrium at an extremely fast speed, and the equilibrium concentration is influenced by the surface soil moisture. By using regional soil moisture/snow depth neutron detectors, the intensity of fast and slow neutrons can be detected. Through model formulas, the average soil moisture and snow water equivalent over a large area can be calculated.

System features
The maximum measurement range can reach a diameter of 700 m (40 hectares), and the deepest measurement depth can reach 70 cm;
Non hazardous, non-contact, and non-destructive to soil structure, capable of measuring soil moisture content and snow water equivalent;
Almost unaffected by physical and chemical properties such as soil texture and salinity, and unaffected by the physical state of soil moisture, it can measure the moisture content of frozen soil;
Remote sensing inversion of soil moisture provides ground validation at a matching pixel scale;
Comes with data processing software for easy data processing, calculation, and output of regional soil moisture values

Application Fields
Mainly used in soil moisture measurement, drought monitoring, snow depth measurement, agricultural irrigation guidance, slope stability analysis, flash flood forecasting, water supply management, numerical forecasting, climate modeling, etc. In addition, it can be installed on mobile platforms to draw large-scale soil moisture maps.

System parameters
System power supply: 10-16VDC;
Collection interval: selectable from 1 minute to 1 year;
Data storage: 4M, optional expansion module, supports SD storage of data;
Data interface: USB, SDI-12;
Measurement range: maximum measurement range of 700 meters, maximum measurement depth of 70 centimeters;
Range: 0 to saturation;
Uncertainty: 0-4%;
Software features: Visual graphical display interface, easy for users to operate;
Software functions: data quality control, coefficient comparison selection, soil moisture calculation;
Software input data format: txt or excel;
Software output data format: txt;
If there is a one hour counting interval, the software can process data for no less than 3 years at once;
The software can linearly display the calculation results of soil moisture.
Optional sensors for air temperature and humidity, atmospheric pressure, rainfall, soil moisture, etc.

CRS dedicated data processing software
The data processing software for the cosmic ray neutron soil moisture observation system is designed for measuring soil moisture using the cosmic ray neutron method. The software calculates and outputs the soil moisture value of the region by combining the neutron count measured by the cosmic ray sensing sensor with relevant meteorological data and relevant calculation formulas.