In recent years, cosmic‐ray neutron sensing (CRNS) has shown a large potential among proximal sensing techniques to monitor soil moisture noninvasively, with high frequency and a large support volume (radius up to 240 m and sensing depth up to 80 cm). This signal is, however, more sensitive to closer distances and shallower depths. Inherently, CRNS‐derived soil moisture is a spatially weighted value, different from an average soil moisture as retrieved by a sensor network. In this study, we systematically test a new profile shape correction on CRNS‐derived soil moisture, based on additional soil moisture profile measurements and vertical unweighting, which is especially relevant during pronounced wetting or drying fronts. The analyses are conducted with data collected at four contrasting field sites, each equipped with a CRNS probe and a distributed soil moisture sensor network. After applying the profile shape correction on CRNS‐derived soil moisture, it is compared with the sensor network average. Results show that the influence of the vertical sensitivity of CRNS on integral soil moisture values is successfully reduced. One to three properly located profile measurements within the CRNS support volume improve the performance. For the four investigated field sites, the RMSE decreased 11–53% when only one profile location was considered. We therefore recommend to install along with a CRNS at least one soil moisture profile in a radial distance <100 m and a measurement depth down to 50 cm. Profile‐shape‐corrected, CRNS‐derived soil moisture is an unweighted integral soil moisture over the support volume, which is easier to interpret and easier to use for further applications.

中文翻译：

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轮廓形状校正可降低宇宙射线中子对土壤湿度的垂直灵敏度

近年来，宇宙射线中子感测（CRNS）在近端感测技术中显示了巨大的潜力，可以无创地监测土壤水分，具有高频率和大支撑量（半径可达240 m，感测深度可达80 cm）。但是，此信号对更近的距离和更浅的深度更敏感。从本质上讲，CRNS衍生的土壤湿度是空间加权值，不同于传感器网络获取的平均土壤湿度。在这项研究中，我们基于额外的土壤水分剖面测量和垂直失重，系统地测试了CRNS衍生的土壤水分的新剖面形状校正，这在明显的湿润或干燥前期尤其重要。分析是从四个对比现场采集的数据进行的，每个都配有CRNS探头和分布式土壤湿度传感器网络。在对CRNS衍生的土壤水分应用轮廓形状校正后，将其与传感器网络平均值进行比较。结果表明，CRNS的垂直灵敏度对土壤总水分值的影响已成功降低。在CRNS支撑体积内一到三个正确定位的轮廓测量可改善性能。对于四个被调查的现场站点，仅考虑一个剖面位置时，RMSE下降了11％至53％。因此，我们建议与CRNS一起在径向距离<100 m和测量深度低至50 cm的地方安装至少一个土壤湿度曲线。轮廓形状校正的，CRNS衍生的土壤水分是支撑体积上未加权的整体土壤水分，