Can Drip Irrigation be Scheduled with Cosmic‐Ray Neutron Sensing?

Core IdeasCosmic‐ray neutron sensing (CRNS) was used in a drip‐irrigated field.Soil water content was estimated from CRNS.Neutron transport was simulated for the drip‐irrigated field.CRNS has limitations for irrigation scheduling of drip‐irrigated fields.Irrigation is essential for maintaining food production in water‐scarce regions. The irrigation need depends on the water content of the soil, which we measured with the novel technique of cosmic‐ray neutron sensing (CRNS). The potential of the CRNS technique for drip irrigation scheduling was explored in this study for the Picassent site near Valencia, Spain. To support the experimental evidence, the neutron transport simulation URANOS was used to simulate the effect of drip irrigation on the neutron counts. The overall soil water content (SWC) in the CRNS footprint was characterized with a root mean square error