Application example: Soil water balance in the Atacama
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How do fog frequency and duration as well as the extreme day-night temperature fluctuations and the resulting dew point conditions affect the water content in the topsoil in the Atacama Desert (northern Chile), and what effects do the fluctuations in water content have on the earth's surface processes?
Execution of the experiment
(Concept: University of Cologne, link)
- In the hyperarid part of the Atacama, the near-surface soil layers are mainly - if at all - moistened by fog.
- The monitoring set-up covers the upper approx. 10 cm, with spatially high-resolution: 3-5 measuring depths, 2 probes per measuring depth.
- The measuring volume of the SMT100 extends about 5 cm around the sensor (depending on the humidity). The sensitivity decreases more or less exponentially, i.e. material directly on the sensor has the greatest influence on the measurement result.
- Consequence: About 90 % of the measurement result is determined by the material up to 2 cm away. A high spatial resolution of the topsoil is therefore possible with the set-up described.
| Product | Parameters |
| 10x SMT100 probes | Soil water content, soil temperature |
| enviLog Midi with RDT | |
| Solar supply |