Monitoring snow water equivalent using the phase of RFID signals
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Published:2023-08-04
Issue:8
Volume:17
Page:3137-3156
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ISSN:1994-0424
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Container-title:The Cryosphere
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language:en
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Short-container-title:The Cryosphere
Author:
Le Breton MathieuORCID, Larose ÉricORCID, Baillet Laurent, Lejeune Yves, van Herwijnen Alec
Abstract
Abstract. The amount of water contained in a snowpack, known as
snow water equivalent (SWE), is used to anticipate the amount of snowmelt that could supply hydroelectric power plants, fill water reservoirs, or
sometimes cause flooding. This work introduces a wireless, non-destructive
method for monitoring the SWE of a dry snowpack. The system is based on an
array of low-cost passive radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags, placed
under the snow and read at 865–868 MHz by a reader located above the snow.
The SWE was deduced from the phase delay of the tag's backscattered
response, which increases with the amount of snow traversed by the
radiofrequency wave. Measurements taken in the laboratory, during snowfall events and over
4.5 months at the Col de Porte test field, were consistent with reference
measurements of cosmic rays, precipitation and snow pits. SWE accuracy was
±18 kg m−2 throughout the season (averaged over three tags) and
±3 kg m−2 during dry snowfall events (averaged over data from two
antennas and four or five tags). The overall uncertainty compared to snow
weighing was ±10 % for snow density in the
range 61–390 kg m−3. The main limitations observed were measurement
bias caused by wet snow (biased data were discarded) and the need for phase
unwrapping. The method has a number of advantages: it allows for continuous
measurement (1 min sampling rate in dry snow), it can provide complementary
measurement of tag temperature, it does not require the reception of
external data, and it opens the way towards spatialized measurements. The
results presented also demonstrate that RFID propagation-based sensing can remotely monitor the permittivity of a low-loss dielectric material with
scientific-level accuracy.
Funder
Agence Nationale de la Recherche
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Subject
Earth-Surface Processes,Water Science and Technology
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