The Use of Radar Methods to Determine Moisture Content in the Vadose Zone

Technical Report · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/833526· OSTI ID:833526

Knight, Rosemary

Moisture content is a critical parameter affecting both liquid-phase and vapor-phase contaminant transport in the vadose zone. The objective of our three-year research project is to determine the optimal way to use of radar methods--both surface and borehole--as a noninvasive means of determining in situ moisture content. In our research we focus on two specific aspects of the link between radar images and moisture content. The first question we address is: Can we use a measure of the dielectric constant of a volume of the subsurface to determine the moisture content of that volume? The second question we address is: Can we use the radar data to characterize the spatial variability in moisture content?

• Research Organization: Stanford University, Stanford, CA (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Environmental Management (EM) (US)
• DOE Contract Number: FG07-00ER15118; FG07-96ER14711
• OSTI ID: 833526
• Report Number(s): EMSP-70115-2001; R&D Project: EMSP 70115; TRN: US200430%%1603
• Resource Relation: Other Information: PBD: 1 Jun 2001
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
MOISTURE
PERMITTIVITY
RADAR
TRANSPORT