Investigations on power factor of the soil electrical impedance as related to moisture,salinity and bulk density

Summary The power factor of the soil electrical impedance was investigated for soils having different textures over a frequency range of 20 kHz–60 MHz. The measurements were carried out in laboratory conditions with different soil water and salinity levels. Within the frequency range of 1–3 MHz the power factor was not significantly affected by soil water contents higher than about 6% (volume) and was also not affected by soil salinity within a range of 0.3–20 dS/m. However, the soil bulk density did influence the magnitude of the power factor. Thus, measurement of soil bulk density, independent of soil water content and salinity, may be possible.