Study on design, construction and testing of cosmic-ray soil moisture observing system in Vietnam

Nguyễn Đức Tuấn1, Mai Van Dien1, Vu Van Tien1, Khuong Thanh Tuan1, Cao Duc Viet1, Nguyen Thanh Hung1
1 Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology

Main Article Content

Abstract

The newly-developed cosmic-ray method for measuring area-average soil moisture at the hectometer horizontal scale is being implemented in the COsmic-ray Soil Moisture  Observing  System  (or  the  COSMOS). The  stationary cosmic-ray  soil  moisture  probe  measures  the  neutrons  that are generated by cosmic rays (or Cosmic-Ray Neutron Sensing-CRNS) within air and soil and other materials, moderated by mainly hydrogen atoms located primarily  in  soil  water,  and  emitted  to  the  atmosphere where they mix instantaneously at a scale of hundreds of meters and whose density is inversely correlated with soil moisture. The CRNS technique has been known for more than 10 years and validated by many scientific publications in the world. In Vietnam, a country greatly affected by global climate change, this is the first time this technique has been implemented and applied. Together with other traditional methods for soil moisture determination such as point measurement and remote sensing, CRNS technique will effectively contribute to the real-time monitoring of drought, prediction of flash floods and landslides, or planning irrigation in smart agriculture. This paper is written to introduce the results of the COSMOS-VINATOM project of the Ministry of Science and Technology. We describe the cosmic-ray soil moisture measurement method and the design of a specific COSMOS using advanced technologies in neutron and muon detector, signal processing and data transmission.This system has also been tested in the field in Xuan Canh commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi, Vietnam with initial positive results.

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