Analysis of the Snow Water Equivalent at the AEMet-Formigal Field Laboratory (Spanish Pyrenees) During the 2019/2020 Winter Season Using a Stepped-Frequency Continuous Wave Radar (SFCW)

Snow makes a great contribution to the hydrological cycle in cold regions. The parameter to characterize available the water from the snow cover is the well-known snow water equivalent (SWE). This paper presents a near-surface-based radar for determining the SWE from the measured complex spectral reflectance of the snowpack. The method is based in a stepped-frequency continuous wave radar (SFCW), implemented in a coherent software defined radio (SDR), in the range from 150 MHz to 6 GHz. An electromagnetic model to solve the electromagnetic reflectance of a snowpack, including the frequency and wetness dependence of the complex relative dielectric permittivity of snow layers, is shown. Using the previous model, an approximated method to calculate the SWE is proposed. The results are presented and compared with those provided by a cosmic-ray neutron SWE gauge over the 2019–2020 winter in the experimental AEMet Formigal-Sarrios test site. This experimental field is located in the Spanish Pyrenees at an elevation of 1800 m a.s.l. The results suggest the viability of the approximate method. Finally, the feasibility of an auxiliary snow height measurement sensor based on a 120 GHz frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar sensor, is shown.

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A Local Oscillator Phase Compensation Technique for Ultra-Wideband Stepped-Frequency Continuous Wave Radar Based on a Low-Cost Software-Defined Radio

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s21030780 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 780

Author(s):

Kazunori Takahashi ◽

Takashi Miwa

Keyword(s):

Software Defined Radio ◽

Initial Phase ◽

Continuous Wave ◽

Low Cost ◽

Local Oscillator ◽

The Other ◽

Ultra Wideband ◽

Single Frequency ◽

Wave Radar ◽

Stepped Frequency

The paper discusses a way to configure a stepped-frequency continuous wave (SFCW) radar using a low-cost software-defined radio (SDR). The most of high-end SDRs offer multiple transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) channels, one of which can be used as the reference channel for compensating the initial phases of TX and RX local oscillator (LO) signals. It is same as how commercial vector network analyzers (VNAs) compensate for the LO initial phase. These SDRs can thus acquire phase-coherent in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) data without additional components and an SFCW radar can be easily configured. On the other hand, low-cost SDRs typically have only one transmitter and receiver. Therefore, the LO initial phase has to be compensated and the phases of the received I/Q signals have to be retrieved, preferably without employing an additional receiver and components to retain the system low-cost and simple. The present paper illustrates that the difference between the phases of TX and RX LO signals varies when the LO frequency is changed because of the timing of the commencement of the mixing. The paper then proposes a technique to compensate for the LO initial phases using the internal RF loopback of the transceiver chip and to reconstruct a pulse, which requires two streaming: one for the device under test (DUT) channel and the other for the internal RF loopback channel. The effect of the LO initial phase and the proposed method for the compensation are demonstrated by experiments at a single frequency and sweeping frequency, respectively. The results show that the proposed method can compensate for the LO initial phases and ultra-wideband (UWB) pulses can be reconstructed correctly from the data sampled by a low-cost SDR.

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Review article: Performance assessment of electromagnetic wave-based field sensors for SWE monitoring

10.5194/tc-2021-163 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Alain Royer ◽

Alexandre Roy ◽

Sylvain Jutras ◽

Alexandre Langlois

Keyword(s):

Electromagnetic Waves ◽

Gamma Ray ◽

Continuous Wave ◽

Snow Water Equivalent ◽

Low Cost ◽

Cosmic Ray ◽

Satellite System ◽

Fmcw Radar ◽

Wave Radar ◽

Global Navigation Satellite

Abstract. Continuous and spatially distributed data of snow mass (snow water equivalent, SWE) from automatic ground-based measurements are increasingly required for climate change studies and for hydrological applications (snow hydrological model improvement and data assimilation). We present and compare four new-generation non-invasive sensors that are based on electromagnetic waves for direct measurements of SWE: Cosmic Ray Neutron Probe (CNRP); Gamma Ray Monitoring (GMON) scintillator; frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar (FMCW-Radar) at 24 GHz; and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers for SWE retrieval. All four techniques are relatively low cost, have low power requirements, provide continuous and autonomous measurements, and can be installed in remote areas. Their operating principles are briefly summarized before examples of comparative measurements are provided. A performance review comparing their advantages, drawbacks and accuracies is discussed. Overall instrument accuracy is estimated to range between 9 and 15 %.

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