Sammendrag
Extracting snowpack parameters from snow cover
on sea ice or land is a time-consuming and potentially high-risk
task. Moreover, deriving such parameters by manually digging
a snow pit evidently yields low area coverage. We, therefore,
propose a practical solution to this problem by mounting an
ultrawideband radar system onto an unmanned aerial vehicle
(UAV) to obtain information such as snowpack depth, density,
and stratigraphy in order to increase personnel safety and extend
coverage area. In this paper, we describe the development of
radar system hardware and its mounting onto a UAV, as well
as initial tests with this radar as a snow measuring device.
Preliminary results from both ground and airborne testing
show that the radar system is capable of obtaining snow depth
information that corresponds well to in situ validation data with
a correlation of 0.87. The radar system also works well while
mounted on a UAV platform with little additional signal noise
from vibrational and translatory movements.
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