Study for correlation between neutrons detected by Electron and Neutron Detector Array (ENDA) and soil humidity

The electron and neutron detector (EN-detector) can detect the thermal neutrons produced by hadronic components in the secondary particles of cosmic rays. According to our previous paper about the performance of EN-detectors in Yangbajing, Tibet, during the period from August 2019 to January 2020, the number of detected neutrons in rain season is significantly (∼ 10%) lower than that in periods of dry season. In order to further study the correlation between the detector performance and humidity in soil, five soil moisture meters have been installed at different depths inside ENDA-16-HZS in August 2020. By analyzing the data in September 2020, it is demonstrated that both counting rate of EN-detector and neutrons in triggered events are negatively correlated with humidity