Measurement of soil translocation by tillage using a non invasive electromagnetic method

ABSTRACT:

The paper describes a non invasive technique for measuring tillage erosion using an electromagnetic probe that measures the magnetic susceptibility of the soil. Small iron nuts are buried in the soil, transported by tillage equipment, and coordinates of their new center of mass (CM) are then determined by surveying the perturbed magnetic susceptibility. The proposed method is quick—30 minutes per survey—for the CM-coordinates and one hour for a precise reconstruction of the shape of the cloud of tracers. On the other hand, the method does not describe the mixing of the soil because, differenting from the excavation-based method, the tracers are halt with statistically.