Every winter we see the same headlines: “Snow chaos in the city”. But what actually happens on a...
Snower was at International Snow Science Workshop 2024 in Tromsø, Norway, where we exhibited our recent study on detecting snowpack with low-cost radar. The case study was done in Pyhätunturi, Finland.
Abstract: Measuring snowpack and its qualities is a difficult task for snow scientists. Instrumentation is expensive and usually requires maintenance. The observation locations can be remote and often there are few possibilities to connect to the electrical grid and the internet network. A study was conducted to measure the snowpack with a low-cost IoT device. Device measures snow height with a radar, snow surface temperature, ambient temperature and relative humidity. Study area consisted of twelve sensors in the proximity of a ski resort. Additional four sensors were installed to the closest meteorological observation centre to compare the data with an official snow height observation location. The raw data was then manipulated with an algorithm to present the data from different snow types and scenarios. The results of this study showed that this method of using low-cost radar was reliable. The radars together with the algorithm were able to produce accurate readings throughout the winter season with different snow types. The usage of battery powered low-cost radar allows reliable data collection throughout the winter. Large meteorological datasets with small time intervals allows accurate data analyses and usage in other applications such as SNOWPACK. The small size and low-power usage allows data collection on remote locations and a possibility for a broad spatial coverage to get an overall understanding of the snowpack properties.
Read the article here:
