Technical Note: Revisiting the general calibration of cosmic-ray neutron sensors to estimate soil water content

Abstract. Cosmic-ray neutron sensing (CRNS) is becoming increasingly popular for monitoring soil water content (SWC). To retrieve SWC from observed neutron intensities, local measurements of SWC are typically required to calibrate a location-specific parameter, N0, in the corresponding transfer function. In this study, we develop a generalized conversion function that explicitly takes into account the different factors that govern local neutron intensity. Thus, the parameter N0 becomes location independent, i.e. generally applicable. We demonstrate the feasibility of such a “general calibration function” by analysing 75 CRNS sites from four recently published datasets. Given the choice between the two calibration strategies – local or general – users will wonder which one is preferable. To answer this question, we estimated the resulting uncertainty in the SWC by means of error propagation. While the uncertainty in the local calibration depends on both the local reference SWC itself and its error, the uncertainty in the general calibration is mainly governed by the errors in vegetation biomass and soil bulk density. Our results suggest that a local calibration – generally considered best practice – might often not be the best option. In order to support the decision which calibration strategy – local or general – is actually preferable in the user-specific application context, we provide an interactive online tool that assesses the uncertainty in both options (https://cosmic-sense.github.io/local-or-global, last access: 23 February 2024).