Soil dielectric characterization during freeze–thaw transitions  using L-band coaxial and soil moisture probes

Mavrovic, Alex; Pardo Lara, Renato; Berg, Aaron; Demontoux, François; Royer, Alain; Roy, Alexandre

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1117-2021

Articles | Volume 25, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1117-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-1117-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 25, issue 3

Research article

|

04 Mar 2021

Research article |

| 04 Mar 2021

Soil dielectric characterization during freeze–thaw transitions using L-band coaxial and soil moisture probes

Alex Mavrovic, Renato Pardo Lara, Aaron Berg, François Demontoux, Alain Royer, and Alexandre Roy

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Final revised paper (published on 04 Mar 2021)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 10 Jul 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'First review', Jan Hofste, 28 Jul 2020
- AC1: 'Authors' response to Reviewer #1', Alex Mavrovic, 30 Oct 2020
RC2: 'Interactive comments of the manuscript "Soil dielectric characterization at L-band microwave frequencies during freeze-thaw transitions" by Alex Mavrovic et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 28 Jul 2020
- AC2: 'Authors' response to Reviewer #1', Alex Mavrovic, 30 Oct 2020
RC3: 'Comments', Anonymous Referee #3, 27 Aug 2020
- AC3: 'Authors' response to Reviewer #3', Alex Mavrovic, 30 Oct 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to revisions (further review by editor and referees) (24 Nov 2020) by Bob Su

AR by Katja Gänger on behalf of the Authors (26 Nov 2020) Author's response

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (29 Nov 2020) by Bob Su

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (15 Dec 2020)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Thank the authors a lot for their dedicated revisions, elaborating the potential measurement uncertainties and adding more explanations about the experiment, used models, and results, which addressed most of my concerns. I only have some minor comments for consideration.

Line 246: Please check the appropriate use of “experiment”?

Line 249: “Permittivity measurements were taken only when the soil temperature equilibrated with the cold chamber air temperature (± 0.1°C).”
Please explain more about the cold chamber air temperature. The cold chamber air temperature is measured by sensors or the temperature settings of the cold chamber. If for the later option, what is the range of the temperature fluctuations when you set the cold chamber to a specific temperature value?

Section 2.2.1, and Line 357-359, Line 380:
The treatment of ice fraction in Zhang’s model is still not mathematically clear to me.
In its original form (Equations 1 &2), the liquid water fraction is calculated as the exponential function of soil temperature. Then how is the ice fraction calculated?
In the updated Zhang’s model with consideration of the hysteresis effect, the ice fraction is added as an exponential function (e^x/(e^x+1)). What is “x” represented for? How the ice fraction is differed for the freezing and thawing cycles?
The definition of ice fraction as “this ice fraction should not be interpreted as actual ice at temperature below freezing point but rather as an aggregate of the heterogeneous soil temperature” is only for the thawing cycle or for both the freezing and thawing cycles? The cases where “this definition of ice fraction” is used should be clearly indicated.
The concept “freezing/thawing temperature offset” needs more explanation (Line 380).

Section 2.2.1, Equations 1 &2, Table 1:
Although the symbols are well defined, I think it is better to keep the symbols (θ_V,θ_G,ρ_d) in Table 1 consistent with Equations 1&2.

Referee Report: PDF

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RR by Jan Hofste (16 Dec 2020)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (28 Dec 2020) by Bob Su

AR by Alex Mavrovic on behalf of the Authors (07 Jan 2021) Author's response Author's tracked changes Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (19 Jan 2021) by Bob Su

Short summary

This paper presents a new probe that measures soil microwave permittivity in the frequency range of satellite L-band sensors. The probe capacities will allow for validation and calibration of the models used to estimate landscape physical properties from raw microwave satellite datasets. Our results show important discrepancies between model estimates and instrument measurements that will need to be addressed.