Evaluation of the capacitively coupled resistivity (line antenna) method for the characterization of vadose zone dynamics

• Water infiltration was monitored using the capacitively coupled resistivity method.
• It proved the applicability of the method for vadose zone dynamics studies.
• It revealed that the system sometimes falsely interpreted the current level.
• The potential experimental bias of this study is examined and discussed.

The electrical resistivity survey, traditionally realized by the direct current (DC) resistivity method, has shown great value for characterizing vadose zone dynamics. Compared with the DC resistivity method, the capacitively coupled (CC) resistivity method has a higher ratio of measurement speed to data density, and thus is economically preferred for resistivity surveys that require high data density, e.g., hydrological characterizations. To test the applicability of the CC resistivity method to the study of vadose zone dynamics, we conducted time-lapse resistivity surveys using a commercial CC resistivity (line antenna) system, the OhmMapper, to monitor the water content change in an unsaturated zone due to artificial rainfall infiltration. Special considerations were paid to the inversion of CC resistivity (line antenna) measurements in order to increase the accuracy of inversion results. The derived resistivity of the subsurface clearly captures the water movement in the vadose zone and shows the applicability of the CC resistivity method. The experiment also showed a limitation of the equipment: when the ground surface became extremely conductive, the OhmMapper falsely interpreted the current level. If the wrong current level is identified in the measurement, the measured resistance should be corrected accordingly. The overestimation of the ground resistivity of the CC resistivity method, arising from the decrease in the ground resistivity, was also examined and discussed. Although the measurement bias was found to be negligible in our study, one should still be cautious about it when using the CC resistivity method for similar applications, especially when the measurement is made with a short dipole cable.