Neutron-Gamma Analysis of Soil for Digital Agriculture

Abstract

This chapter describes technical aspects of neutron stimulated gamma ray analysis of soil carbon. The introduction covers general principles, different modifications of neutron gamma analysis, measurement system configurations, and advantages of this method for soil carbon analysis. Problems with neutron-gamma technology for soil carbon analysis and investigation methods including Monte-Carlo simulation of neutron interaction with soil elements are discussed. Based on investigation results, a method to extract the “soil carbon net peak” from raw acquired data was developed. A direct proportional dependency between the carbon net peak area and average carbon weight percent in the upper 10 cm soil layer for any carbon depth profile was demonstrated. Calibration of the measurement system using sand-carbon pits and field measurements of soil carbon are described. Compared to traditional chemical analysis (dry combustion) data, measurement results demonstrated good agreement between methods. Thus, neutron stimulated gamma ray analysis can be used for in situ determination of near surface soil carbon content and is applicable for precision geospatial mapping of soil carbon.