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Fiber-optic seismic sensing of vadose zone soil moisture dynamics

Nature Communications, ISSN: 2041-1723, Vol: 15, Issue: 1, Page: 6432
2024
  • 4
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 31
    Captures
  • 19
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

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  • Citations
    4
  • Captures
    31
  • Mentions
    19
    • News Mentions
      18
      • 18
    • Blog Mentions
      1
      • 1

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From The California Institute of Technology: "Seismic Detectors Measure Soil Moisture Using Traffic Noise"

From The California Institute of Technology 8.5.24 Lori Dajose (626) 395‑1217 ldajose@caltech.edu Caltech Caltech researchers have developed a new method to measure soil moisture in

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Fiber-Optic Cables Used to Measure Changing Soil Moisture

The vadose zone—the underground region between Earth’s surface and the groundwater table—plays an important role in the water cycle. But so far, monitoring the vadose

Article Description

Vadose zone soil moisture is often considered a pivotal intermediary water reservoir between surface and groundwater in semi-arid regions. Understanding its dynamics in response to changes in meteorologic forcing patterns is essential to enhance the climate resiliency of our ecological and agricultural system. However, the inability to observe high-resolution vadose zone soil moisture dynamics over large spatiotemporal scales hinders quantitative characterization. Here, utilizing pre-existing fiber-optic cables as seismic sensors, we demonstrate a fiber-optic seismic sensing principle to robustly capture vadose zone soil moisture dynamics. Our observations in Ridgecrest, California reveal sub-seasonal precipitation replenishments and a prolonged drought in the vadose zone, consistent with a zero-dimensional hydrological model. Our results suggest a significant water loss of 0.25 m/year through evapotranspiration at our field side, validated by nearby eddy-covariance based measurements. Yet, detailed discrepancies between our observations and modeling highlight the necessity for complementary in-situ validations. Given the escalated regional drought risk under climate change, our findings underscore the promise of fiber-optic seismic sensing to facilitate water resource management in semi-arid regions.

Bibliographic Details

Shen, Zhichao; Yang, Yan; Fu, Xiaojing; Adams, Kyra H; Biondi, Ettore; Zhan, Zhongwen

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Chemistry; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Physics and Astronomy

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