Interpretation of borehole-inclinometer data: a general theory applied to a new instrument

Abstract

AbstractBorehole inclinometers are standard equipment for field glaciologists and are commonly used for investigating the flow law of ice and for measuring the spatial position of englacial and sub-surface sensors. The recent development, at the University of British Columbia (UBC), of a prototype inclinometer that employs a three-component fluxgate magentometer to obtain a compass bearing has stimulated our interest in borehole inclinometry. Following a review of various approaches to glacier inclinometry, we present a unified theory of data interpretation that can be applied to all inclinometers, discuss the application of the theory to the UBC inclinometer, and discuss the sensitivity of the theory to error in the data.