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US 7,066,021 B1Granted
Runoff rain gauge
OwnerStephen A. Noeinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a runoff rain gauge 100 which includes a collector tube 104, soil infiltration resistance medium 108, a runoff resistance flow element 113, a standard rain gauge 102, and runoff collection tube 114. Precipitation enters the collector tube 104 and is divided to flow into the infiltration medium 108 and runoff collection tube 114 via flow element 113. Total precipitation is read in standard rain gauge 102, runoff in tube 114, and soil infiltration in medium 108 is calculated by the difference between total precipitation and the runoff.
Claims19
A rain runoff gauge, comprising:
- a collector tube having an opening for receiving precipitation;
- an infiltration circuit providing a reference soil infiltration resistance in communication with the collector tube;
- a runoff circuit in communication with the collector tube providing runoff characteristics of a surface of the reference soil;
- a runoff collection tube to receive runoff from the runoff circuit, and
- a measurement system for reading runoff to the runoff collection tube.
2 more elements
A method for measuring rain runoff, comprising:
- collecting precipitation in a collector tube;
- passing a first portion of the collected precipitation to an infiltration circuit providing infiltration resistance characteristics of a reference soil;
- passing a second portion of the collected precipitation to a runoff circuit providing runoff characteristics of a surface of the reference soil;
- collecting the second portion in a runoff collection tube;
- and
- measuring the precipitation collected in the runoff collection tube.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.