López Aldaba, AitorLópez Torres, DiegoCampo-Bescós, MiguelLópez Rodríguez, José JavierYerro Lizarazu, DavidElosúa Aguado, CésarArregui San Martín, Francisco JavierAuguste, Jean-LouisJamier, RaphaelRoy, PhilippeLópez-Amo Sáinz, Manuel2019-02-152019-02-1520182076-3417 (Electronic)10.3390/app8091499https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/32309Soil moisture content has always been an important parameter to control because it is a deterministic factor for site-specific irrigation, seeding, transplanting, and compaction detection. In this work, a discrete sensor that is based on a SnO2–FP (Fabry-Pérot) cavity is presented and characterized in real soil conditions. As far as authors know, it is the first time that a microstructured optical fiber is used for real soil moisture measurements. Its performance is compared with a commercial capacitive soil moisture sensor in two different soil scenarios for two weeks. The optical sensor shows a great agreement with capacitive sensor’s response and gravimetric measurements, as well as a fast and reversible response; moreover, the interrogation technique allows for several sensors to be potentially multiplexed, which offers the possibility of local measurements instead of volumetric: it constitutes a great tool for real soil moisture monitoring.12 p.application/pdfeng© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.Photonic crystal fiberMicrostructured optical fiberFiber sensorHumidity sensingSoil moistureArtículo / ArtikuluaAcceso abierto / Sarbide irekiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess