OPAQUE

This project is part of the Opaque project and is embedded in the work package “Early warning for critical atmospheric and catchment conditions” (Vorwarnung vor kritischen Atmosphärensituationen und Gebietszuständen). The aim of one part of this work package is the estimation of soil moisture and their scale dependent variability, because soil moisture is one of the key parameters of the runoff generation process and therefore fundamental for the optimisation of flood prediction.

© Benjamin Creutzfeldt

Soil moisture is highly variable in space and time and from a technical perspective, accurate soil moisture measurements are still a challenging task. Though, it is necessary to measure soil moisture on different scales and different measurement techniques. One aim of the Opaque project is to develop a consistent approach for upscaling soil moisture from the point to the catchment scale. On the point scale, classical (TDR, gravimetric method) as well as experimental methods (Spatial TDR) are used to measure the soil moisture variability on different hydrotropes and to derive soil moisture patterns ( Institute of Geoecology, University Potsdam ). The regionalisation of soil moisture and the identification of its variability and spatial patterns are done by ground penetrating radar (GPR) measurements ( Section 5.4, GFZ Potsdam and Applied Geophysics, University Potsdam ). Further upscaling of the soil moisture is done by air- and spaceborne radar measurements ( Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik und Radarsysteme, DLR and Section 1.4, GFZ Potsdam ).

Our specific focus for this activity is on soil moisture and its regionalisation by means of GPR measurements. Generally, in literature the advantage of GPR is described as that GPR measurement can bridge the gap between point and spaceborne measurements. Hence, we will investigate the possibility to link the scale dependent gap by GPR measurements and we will focus on the GPR soil moisture estimation on the plot and slope scale.

© Benjamin Creutzfeldt