Brief communication: Monitoring active layer dynamics using a lightweight nimble ground-penetrating radar system – a laboratory analogue test case

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Léger, Emmanuel, Saintenoy, Albane, Serhir, Mohammed, Costard, François, Grenier, Christophe
• Other Authors: Géosciences Paris Saclay (GEOPS), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Sondra, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay (SONDRA), ONERA-CentraleSupélec-Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire Génie électrique et électronique de Paris (GeePs), CentraleSupélec-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement Gif-sur-Yvette (LSCE), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Paris-Saclay-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Direction de Recherche Fondamentale (CEA) (DRF (CEA)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), ANR-19-CE46-0003,HiPerBorea,Calul haute performance pour la quantification des impacts du changement climatique sur les régions boréales(2019)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: permafrost; Ground penetrating radar GPR; Active layer; [SDE]Environmental Sciences; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-04290517; https://hal.science/hal-04290517/document; https://hal.science/hal-04290517/file/L%C3%A9ger_et_al_TC_2023.pdf; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-1271-2023

International audience Abstract. Monitoring active layer dynamics is critical for improving the understanding of near-surface thermal and hydrological processes in the cryosphere. This study presents the laboratory test of a low-cost ground-penetrating radar (GPR) system within a laboratory experiment of active layer freezing and thawing monitoring. The system is an in-house-built low-power monostatic GPR antenna coupled with a reflectometer piloted by a single-board computer (SBC) and was tested prior to field deployment. The correspondence between the frozen front electromagnetic (EM) reflection and temperature allowed us to test the ability of the system to closely monitor the frozen front and bottom of the active layer reflection.