Publication Details |
| Category | Text Publication |
| Reference Category | Conference papers |
| URL | https://pos.sissa.it/236/ |
| Title (Primary) | Monitoring environmental water with ground albedo neutrons and correction for incoming cosmic rays with neutron monitor data |
| Title (Secondary) | The 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July- 6 August, 2015. The Hague, The Netherlands (ICRC2015) |
| Author | Schrön, M.; Zacharias, S.; Köhli, M.; Weimar, J.; Dietrich, P.
|
| Source Titel | Proceedings of Science |
| Year | 2015 |
| Department | MET |
| Volume | (ICRC2015)231 |
| Page From | 1 |
| Page To | 8 |
| Language | englisch |
| UFZ wide themes | RU5; |
| Abstract | Neutron monitors on the Earth’s surface are usually used to track the dynamics of incoming cosmic-ray neutrons of high energy under the assumption that local environmental conditions do not influence the highly shielded flux. Oppositely, in a recently established research field the local dynamics of environmental water is monitored by detecting low-energy cosmic-ray neutrons. 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 have been installed on natural or agricultural sites all around the world Climate research, hydrologic models and irrigation management rely on these measurements, which represent area-average water content within tens of hectares due to the fast diffusion of neutrons in air. A major issue is the modulation of the neutron flux by the dynamics of incoming cosmic-ray neutrons. 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. In addition, neutron monitor stations are sparse on Earth, and occasionally signals from different locations appear to be significantly inconsistent. The presentation shows how ground albedo neutrons from cosmic-rays are used in environmental research and emphasizes the need for a reliable correction for the incoming flux. |
| Persistent UFZ Identifier | https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=19487 |
| Schrön, M., Zacharias, S., Köhli, M., Weimar, J., Dietrich, P. (2015): Monitoring environmental water with ground albedo neutrons and correction for incoming cosmic rays with neutron monitor data The 34th International Cosmic Ray Conference, 30 July- 6 August, 2015. The Hague, The Netherlands (ICRC2015) PoS (ICRC2015)231 Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati, SISSA, Triest, 1 - 8 |
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