Device and method for measuring the water content of the ground, vegetation and/or snow

1 . A device for measuring water content of ground, vegetation and snow, comprising:

at least one ambient neutron detector adapted to measure an ambient neutron flow, the at least one ambient neutron detector comprising at least a first sheet and a second sheet made at least partially with a scintillator, a light guide interposed between said first and second sheets; said ambient neutron detector further comprising at least one light meter adapted to measure light conveyed by said light guide;

said at least one ambient neutron detector being adapted to transform interaction of the device with at least one particle into an electric charge;

said device further comprising a programmable control unit operatively connected to said at least one ambient neutron detector,

wherein said programmable control unit comprises an integrating circuit in which the electric charge produced by the interaction with said at least one particle is transformed to a first signal;

said control unit being adapted to process said first signal to discriminate a second signal generated by ambient neutron flow, incident cosmic rays and/or background noise, and obtaining a measurement of ambient neutron flow, incident cosmic rays, and/or background noise;

wherein a measurement of the water content of the ground, vegetation and snow is obtained from a measurement of normalized ambient neutron flow with respect to a measurement of cosmic rays flow incident to the ground; and

wherein said control unit is adapted to calculate at least three parameters wherein: a first parameter is time necessary for the first signal to reach a predetermined fraction of a maximum value; a second parameter is the maximum value of the first signal; and a third parameter is a ratio between a partial charge in a time interval having a predetermined length and a total integrated charge; said first and second signals being distinguishable between each other based on correlations between types of parameters.

2 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein discrimination of the neutrons, cosmic rays, background noise signals is realized by trained neural networks or equivalent neural algorithms.

3 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one ambient neutron detector comprises polyethylene coating sheets, adapted to moderate energy of ambient neutrons, said coating sheets being provided on an external surface of said first sheet and said second sheet.

4 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said first sheet and said second sheet comprise scintillator crystals in a silicone-based matrix.

5 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said first sheet and said second sheet comprise scintillator crystals and Lithium or Boron-based crystals in a silicone-based matrix.

6 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said first sheet and said second sheet comprise ZnS(Ag) scintillator crystals.

7 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said light guide is a WLS solid plate or a wavelength shifting (WLS) optical fiber bundle.

8 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one ambient neutron detector comprises two light meters adapted to measure light conveyed by said light guide.

9 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said at least one light meter adapted to measure the light conveyed by said light guide is a silicon photomultiplier.

10 . The device according to claim 1 , wherein said ambient neutron detector comprises a plurality of sheets, comprising light guides between two of said plurality of sheets.

11 . A method for measuring water content of ground, vegetation and/or snow, comprising the steps of:

providing a device for measuring the water content of the ground, vegetation and/or snow comprising at least one ambient neutron detector adapted to measure an ambient neutron flow, comprising at least a first sheet and a second sheet made at least partially with a scintillator; a light guide between said first sheet and said second sheet; said ambient neutron detector further comprising at least one light meter adapted to measure light conveyed by said light guide;

said ambient neutron detector being adapted to transform interaction of the device with at least one particle into an electric charge;

said device further comprising a programmable control unit and operatively connected to said at least one ambient neutron detector;

wherein said programmable control unit comprises an integrating circuit in which the electric charge produced with the interaction with said at least one particle is transformed to a first signal;

processing by the control unit the first signal generated by the integrating circuit to discriminate a second signal generated by ambient neutron, incident cosmic rays and/or background noise, and obtaining a measurement of ambient neutron flow, incident cosmic rays, and/or background noise;

obtaining a measurement of the water content of the ground, vegetation and/or snow from a measurement of normalized ambient neutron flow with respect to a measurement of cosmic rays flow incident to the ground;

wherein said control unit is adapted to calculate at least three parameters wherein: a first parameter is time necessary for the first signal to reach a predetermined fraction of a maximum value; a second parameter is the maximum value of the first signal; and a third parameter is a ratio between a partial charge in a time interval having a predetermined length and a total integrated charge; said first and second signals being distinguishable between each other based on correlations between types of parameters.