Johan Alexander Huisman

Measuring soil water content with ground penetrating radar: a review

We present a comprehensive review of methods to measure soil water content with ground penetrating radar (GPR). We distinguish four methodologies: soil water content determined from reflected wave velocity, soil water content determined from ground wave velocity, soil water content determined from transmitted wave velocity between boreholes, and soil water content determined from the surface reflection coefficient. For each of these four methodologies, we discuss the basic principles, illustrate the quality of the data with field examples, discuss the possibilities and limitations, and identify areas where future research is required. We hope that this review will further stimulate the community to consider ground penetrating radar as one of the possible tools to measure soil water content.

Soil water content measurements at different scales: accuracy of time domain reflectometry and ground-penetrating radar

Abstract Accurate measurements of soil water content with an appropriate support are important in many research fields. Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) is an interesting measurement technique for mapping soil water content at an intermediate scale in between point and remote sensing measurements. To measure soil water content with GPR, we used the velocity of the ground wave, which is the signal traveling directly from source to receiving antenna through the upper centimeters of the soil. To evaluate GPR performance, we aggregated time domain reflectometry (TDR) and gravimetric soil water content measurements to the support of GPR measurements. The results showed that the calibration equations between GPR measurements and aggregated gravimetrical soil water content were similar to those obtained for TDR measurements, suggesting that available TDR calibrations (e.g. Topps equation) can be used for GPR. Furthermore, we found that the accuracy of GPR to measure soil water content is comparable with the accuracy of TDR, although it depended on the type of data acquisition used for the determination of the ground wave velocity.

The emergence of hydrogeophysics for improved understanding of subsurface processes over multiple scales

Abstract Geophysics provides a multidimensional suite of investigative methods that are transforming our ability to see into the very fabric of the subsurface environment, and monitor the dynamics of its fluids and the biogeochemical reactions that occur within it. Here we document how geophysical methods have emerged as valuable tools for investigating shallow subsurface processes over the past two decades and offer a vision for future developments relevant to hydrology and also ecosystem science. The field of “hydrogeophysics” arose in the late 1990s, prompted, in part, by the wealth of studies on stochastic subsurface hydrology that argued for better field‐based investigative techniques. These new hydrogeophysical approaches benefited from the emergence of practical and robust data inversion techniques, in many cases with a view to quantify shallow subsurface heterogeneity and the associated dynamics of subsurface fluids. Furthermore, the need for quantitative characterization stimulated a wealth of new investigations into petrophysical relationships that link hydrologically relevant properties to measurable geophysical parameters. Development of time‐lapse approaches provided a new suite of tools for hydrological investigation, enhanced further with the realization that some geophysical properties may be sensitive to biogeochemical transformations in the subsurface environment, thus opening up the new field of “biogeophysics.” Early hydrogeophysical studies often concentrated on relatively small “plot‐scale” experiments. More recently, however, the translation to larger‐scale characterization has been the focus of a number of studies. Geophysical technologies continue to develop, driven, in part, by the increasing need to understand and quantify key processes controlling sustainable water resources and ecosystem services.

Analysis of air-launched ground-penetrating radar techniques to measure the soil surface water content

We analyze the common surface reflection and full-wave inversion methods to retrieve the soil surface dielectric permittivity and correlated water content from air-launched ground-penetrating radar (GPR) measurements. In the full-wave approach, antenna effects are filtered out from the raw radar data in the frequency domain, and full-wave inversion is performed in the time domain, on a time window focused on the surface reflection. Synthetic experiments are performed to investigate the most critical hypotheses on which both techniques rely, namely, the negligible effects of the soil electric conductivity (?) and layering. In the frequency range 1–2 GHz we show that for ? > 0.1 Sm?1, significant errors are made on the estimated parameters, e.g., an absolute error of 0.10 in water content may be observed for ? = 1 Sm?1. This threshold is more stringent with decreasing frequency. Contrasting surface layering may proportionally lead to significant errors when the thickness of the surface layer is close to one fourth the wavelength in the medium, which corresponds to the depth resolution. Absolute errors may be >0.10 in water content for large contrasts. Yet we show that full-wave inversion presents valuable advantages compared to the common surface reflection method. First, filtering antenna effects may prevent absolute errors >0.04 in water content, depending of the antenna height. Second, the critical reference measurements above a perfect electric conductor (PEC) are not required, and the height of the antenna does not need to be known a priori. This averts absolute errors of 0.02–0.09 in water content when antenna height differences of 1–5 cm occur between the soil and the PEC. A laboratory experiment is finally presented to analyze the stability of the estimates with respect to actual measurement and modeling errors. While the conditions were particularly well suited for applying the common reflection method, better results were obtained using full-wave inversion.

A high-accuracy impedance spectrometer for measuring sediments with low polarizability

Spectral impedance measurements are receiving increased attention with regard to the characterization of soils, sediments and rocks, particularly in terms of the internal rock structure, the mineralogical composition and the chemistry of fluids contained in porous rocks. In fluid-saturated, porous sedimentary rocks, which are of particular relevance for many hydrological and environmental problems, the polarization processes that give rise to an observed phase shift between input current and output voltage signals are caused by the interaction of the electrolyte in the pores of the rock with electrically charged mineral surfaces. However, this phase response is relatively weak, typically smaller than 10 mrad and sometimes even of the order of only 1 mrad. In order to reliably measure such phase responses in the relevant frequency range, a high-accuracy impedance spectrometer is required. This system must allow phase measurements between 1 mHz and 1 kHz with a phase accuracy better than 0.1 mrad. In this paper, we present a new impedance spectrometer which meets these requirements. It is based on the four-point measurement method and offers a measurement range from 1 mHz to 45 kHz. Furthermore, we present design information for the sample holder and the electrodes, and methods for performing numerical corrections to reduce measurement errors. The overall accuracy of the setup was validated using water and sand with well-defined polarizable objects.

Soil water content interpolation using spatio-temporal kriging with external drift

Abstract In this study, two techniques for spatio-temporal (ST) kriging of soil water content are compared. The first technique, spatio-temporal ordinary kriging, is the simplest of the two, and uses only information about soil water content. The second technique, spatio-temporal kriging with external drift, uses also the relationship between soil water content and net-precipitation to aid the interpolation. It is shown that the behaviour of the soil water content predictions is physically more realistic when using spatio-temporal kriging with external drift. Also, the prediction uncertainties are slightly smaller. The data used in this study consist of Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) measurements from a 30-day irrigation experiment on a 60×60-m grassland in the Netherlands.

Obtaining the Spatial Distribution of Water Content along a TDR Probe Using the SCEM-UA Bayesian Inverse Modeling Scheme

Time domain reflectometry (TDR) has become one of the standard methods for the measurement of the temporal and spatial distribution of water saturation in soils. Current waveform analysis methodology gives a measurement of the average water content along the length of the TDR probe. Close inspection of TDR waveforms shows that heterogeneity in water content along the probe can be seen in the TDR waveform. We present a comprehensive approach to TDR waveform analysis that gives a quantitative estimate of the dielectric permittivity profile along the length of the probe and, therefore, the distribution of water content. The approach is based on the combination of a multisection scatter function model for the TDR measurement system with the shuffled complex evolution Metropolis algorithm (SCEM-UA). This combined approach allows for the estimation of the 40 parameters in the transmission line model using a series of simple calibration measurements. The proof of concept is given with measurements in a layered system consisting of air and water. Finally, TDR waveforms from layered soil samples were analyzed to estimate the distribution of the water content along the length of the probe. Results show that the proposed method provides much more reproducible results than obtained with the traditional travel time method. Because the proposed method can be fully automated, it increases the applicability of the TDR method, especially in applications where detailed (real-time) data are required on heterogeneous infiltration.

Iron oxides as a cause of GPR reflections

Iron oxides frequently occur as secondary precipitates in both modern and ancient sediments and may form bands or irregular patterns. We show from time-domain reflectometry (TDR) field studies that goethite iron-oxide precipitates significantly lower the electromagnetic wave velocity of sediments. Measured variations in magnetic permeability do not explain this decrease. The TDR measurements and a dielectric mixing model also show that neither electrical conductivity nor relative permittivity of the solid material are altered significantly by the iron-oxide material. From drying during all of the measurements, the amount of iron oxides appears to correlate with the volumetric water content, which is the result of differences in water retention capacity between goethite and quartz. These variations in water content control relative permittivity and explain the observed variation in electromagnetic wave velocity. Using 2-D synthetic radar sections, we show that the pattern of iron-oxide precipitation may have a profound influence on the GPR reflection configuration and can cause major difficulties in interpretation.

Critical steps for the continuing advancement of hydrogeophysics

Special hydrogeophysics issues published by hydrology and geophysics journals, special sessions and workshops at conferences, and an increasing number of short courses demonstrate the growing interest in the use of geophysics for hydrologic investigations. The formation of the hydrogeophysics technical subcommittee of AGUs Hydrology section adds further evidence of the recognized significance of this growing interdisciplinary field. Given the clear value of nondestructive and nonintrusive imaging for subsurface investigations, we believe the advances in the adoption of existing geophysical methods, the development of novel methods, and the merging of geophysical and other data made in hydrogeophysics could be applied to a wide range of geological, environmental, and engineering applications.

Three‐dimensional imaging of subsurface structural patterns using quantitative large‐scale multiconfiguration electromagnetic induction data

Electromagnetic induction (EMI) systems measure the soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa), which is related to the soil water content, texture, and salinity changes. Large-scale EMI measurements often show relevant areal ECa patterns, but only few researchers have attempted to resolve vertical changes in electrical conductivity that in principle can be obtained using multiconfiguration EMI devices. In this work, we show that EMI measurements can be used to determine the lateral and vertical distribution of the electrical conductivity at the field scale and beyond. Processed ECa data for six coil configurations measured at the Selhausen (Germany) test site were calibrated using inverted electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data from a short transect with a high ECa range, and regridded using a nearest neighbor interpolation. The quantitative ECa data at each grid node were inverted using a novel three-layer inversion that uses the shuffled complex evolution (SCE) optimization and a Maxwell-based electromagnetic forward model. The obtained 1-D results were stitched together to form a 3-D subsurface electrical conductivity model that showed smoothly varying electrical conductivities and layer thicknesses, indicating the stability of the inversion. The obtained electrical conductivity distributions were validated with low-resolution grain size distribution maps and two 120 m long ERT transects that confirmed the obtained lateral and vertical large-scale electrical conductivity patterns. Observed differences in the EMI and ERT inversion results were attributed to differences in soil water content between acquisition days. These findings indicate that EMI inversions can be used to infer hydrologically active layers.