Measuring snow ablation rates in alpine terrain with a mobile multioffset ground‐penetrating radar system

Abstract

AbstractGround‐penetrating radar (GPR) has become a promising technique in the field of snow hydrological research. It is commonly used to measure snow depth, density, and water equivalent over large distances or along gridded snow courses. Having built and tested a mobile lightweight set‐up, we demonstrate that GPR is capable of accurately measuring snow ablation rates in complex alpine terrain. Our set‐up was optimized for efficient measurements and consisted of a multioffset radar with four pairs of antennas mounted to a plastic sled, which was small enough to permit safe and convenient operations. Repeated measurements at intervals of 2 to 7 days were taken during the 2014/2015 winter season along 10 profiles of 50 to 200 m length within two valleys located in the eastern Swiss Alps. Resulting GPR‐based data of snow depth, density, and water equivalent, as well as their respective change over time, were in good agreement with concurrent manual measurements, in particular if accurate alignment between repeated overpasses could be achieved. Corresponding root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) values amounted to 4.2 cm for snow depth, 17 mm for snow water equivalent, and 22 kg/m3 for snow density, with similar RMSE values for corresponding differential data. With this performance, the presented radar set‐up has the potential to provide exciting new and extensive datasets to validate snowmelt models or to complement lidar‐based snow surveys.