Modeling and simulation of GPR wave propagation through wet snowpacks: Testing the sensitivity of a method for snow water equivalent estimation

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• 作者：Nils Sundströ ; m^a ; ¹ ; ^{nils.sundstrom@ltu.se} ; Andrey Kruglyak^a ; Johan Friborg^b
• 关键词：Ground penetrating radar ; Snow water equivalent ; Liquid water content ; Wet snow ; Common mid-point method ; MATLAB simulations
• 刊名：Cold Regions Science and Technology
• 出版年：2012
• 期刊代码：14_0165232x
• 类别：ear
• 出版时间：May, 2012
• 卷：74-75
• 期：Complete
• 页码：11-20
• 文件大小：1051 K

摘要

Snow water equivalent (SWE) of a snowpack is an important input to distributed snow hydrological models used for runoff predictions in areas with annual snowpacks. Since the conventional method of manually measuring SWE is very time-consuming, more automated methods are being adopted, such as using ground penetrating radar operated from a snowmobile with SWE estimated from radar wave two-way travel time. However, this method suffers from significant errors when liquid water is present in the snow. In our previous work, a new method for estimating SWE of wet snowpacks from radar wave travel times and amplitudes was proposed, with both these parameters obtained from a common mid-point survey. Here we present a custom ray-based model of radar wave propagation through wet snowpacks and results of MATLAB simulations conducted to investigate the method's sensitivity to measurement errors and snowpack properties. In particular, for a single-layer snowpack up to 2.1 m deep and with liquid water content up to 4.5%(by volume), the simulations indicate that SWE can be estimated with an error of 卤 5%or less if (a) the noise (measurement errors) in resulting amplitude has a standard deviation less than 15%and(b) the noise in two-way travel time has a standard deviation less than 0.075 ns (22.5%and 0.15 ns for a snowpack less than 1.3 m deep).