Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers
Abstract Recent research has highlighted the potential for high-resolution, high-density, 3D and 4D ground-penetrating radar (GPR) acquisitions on alpine glaciers. When carried out on foot, such surveys are laborious and time consuming, which limits their application to small domains of limited glac...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
2023
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2023.83 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143023000837 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2023.83 2024-09-15T18:15:37+00:00 Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers Ruols, Bastien Baron, Ludovic Irving, James Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2023.83 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143023000837 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology page 1-12 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 journal-article 2023 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2023.83 2024-07-10T04:04:42Z Abstract Recent research has highlighted the potential for high-resolution, high-density, 3D and 4D ground-penetrating radar (GPR) acquisitions on alpine glaciers. When carried out on foot, such surveys are laborious and time consuming, which limits their application to small domains of limited glaciological interest. Further, crevasses and other hazards make the data acquisition risky. To address these issues, we have developed a drone-based GPR system. The system has a payload weight of 2.2 kg and a data output rate of 14 traces per second. An 80-MHz antenna and a recording time of 2800 ns mean that depths of over 100 m can be reached in temperate ice. Differential GPS positioning assures accurate flight paths. At a speed of 4 m s −1 and height of 5 m above the glacier surface, our system can acquire over 4 line-km of GPR data in 20 min on a single set of drone batteries. After presenting the technical specifications of the system and tests required to optimize its performance, we showcase a recently acquired 3D dataset from the Otemma glacier in Switzerland, where 462 parallel GPR profiles were surveyed at a 1-m line spacing, totaling over 112 line-km of data, in only 4 days. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 1 12 |
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Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
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crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract Recent research has highlighted the potential for high-resolution, high-density, 3D and 4D ground-penetrating radar (GPR) acquisitions on alpine glaciers. When carried out on foot, such surveys are laborious and time consuming, which limits their application to small domains of limited glaciological interest. Further, crevasses and other hazards make the data acquisition risky. To address these issues, we have developed a drone-based GPR system. The system has a payload weight of 2.2 kg and a data output rate of 14 traces per second. An 80-MHz antenna and a recording time of 2800 ns mean that depths of over 100 m can be reached in temperate ice. Differential GPS positioning assures accurate flight paths. At a speed of 4 m s −1 and height of 5 m above the glacier surface, our system can acquire over 4 line-km of GPR data in 20 min on a single set of drone batteries. After presenting the technical specifications of the system and tests required to optimize its performance, we showcase a recently acquired 3D dataset from the Otemma glacier in Switzerland, where 462 parallel GPR profiles were surveyed at a 1-m line spacing, totaling over 112 line-km of data, in only 4 days. |
author2 |
Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Ruols, Bastien Baron, Ludovic Irving, James |
spellingShingle |
Ruols, Bastien Baron, Ludovic Irving, James Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers |
author_facet |
Ruols, Bastien Baron, Ludovic Irving, James |
author_sort |
Ruols, Bastien |
title |
Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers |
title_short |
Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers |
title_full |
Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers |
title_fullStr |
Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers |
title_full_unstemmed |
Development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3D and 4D surveying of alpine glaciers |
title_sort |
development of a drone-based ground-penetrating radar system for efficient and safe 3d and 4d surveying of alpine glaciers |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2023.83 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143023000837 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology page 1-12 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2023.83 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
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1 |
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12 |
_version_ |
1810453473917927424 |