Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements
Glacial hydrology plays an important role in the control of glacier dynamics, of sediment transport, and of fjord and proglacial ecosystems. Surface meltwater drains through glaciers via supraglacial, englacial and subglacial systems. Due to challenging field conditions, the processes driving surfac...
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fthsvestlandet:oai:hvlopen.brage.unit.no:11250/2656327 2024-03-03T08:44:40+00:00 Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements Alexander, Andreas Kruusmaa, Maarja Tuhtan, Jeffrey Hodson, Andrew Schuler, Thomas Kääb, Andreas Svalbard 2020 application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2656327 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1009-2020 eng eng Copernicus Publications Norges forskningsråd: 223254 Alexander, A., Kruusmaa, M., Tuhtan, J. A., Hodson, A. J., Schuler, T. V., & Kääb, A. (2020). Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements. The Cryosphere, 14(3), 1009-1023. urn:issn:1994-0416 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2656327 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1009-2020 cristin:1802096 Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no © Author(s) 2020 1009-1023 14 The Cryosphere 3 Peer reviewed Journal article 2020 fthsvestlandet https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1009-2020 2024-02-02T12:40:48Z Glacial hydrology plays an important role in the control of glacier dynamics, of sediment transport, and of fjord and proglacial ecosystems. Surface meltwater drains through glaciers via supraglacial, englacial and subglacial systems. Due to challenging field conditions, the processes driving surface processes in glacial hydrology remain sparsely studied. Recently, sensing drifters have shown promise in river, coastal and oceanographic studies. However, practical experience with drifters in glacial hydrology remains limited. Before drifters can be used as general tools in glacial studies, it is necessary to quantify the variability of their measurements. To address this, we conducted repeated field experiments in a 450 m long supraglacial channel with small cylindrical drifters equipped with pressure, magnetometer, acceleration and rotation rate sensors and compared the results. The experiments (n=55) in the supraglacial channel show that the pressure sensors consistently yielded the most accurate data, where values remained within ±0.11 % of the total pressure time-averaged mean (95 % confidence interval). Magnetometer readings also exhibited low variability across deployments, maintaining readings within ±2.45 % of the time-averaged mean of the magnetometer magnitudes. Linear acceleration measurements were found to have a substantially higher variability of ±34.4 % of the time-averaged mean magnitude, and the calculated speeds remained within ±24.5 % of the time-averaged mean along the flow path. Furthermore, our results indicate that prominent shapes in the sensor records are likely to be linked to variations in channel morphology and the associated flow field. Our results show that multimodal drifters can be a useful tool for field measurements inside supraglacial channels. Future deployments of drifters into englacial and subglacial channels promise new opportunities for determining hydraulic and morphologic conditions from repeated measurements of such inaccessible environments. publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper glacier Svalbard The Cryosphere Høgskulen på Vestlandet: HVL Open Svalbard The Cryosphere 14 3 1009 1023 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Høgskulen på Vestlandet: HVL Open |
op_collection_id |
fthsvestlandet |
language |
English |
description |
Glacial hydrology plays an important role in the control of glacier dynamics, of sediment transport, and of fjord and proglacial ecosystems. Surface meltwater drains through glaciers via supraglacial, englacial and subglacial systems. Due to challenging field conditions, the processes driving surface processes in glacial hydrology remain sparsely studied. Recently, sensing drifters have shown promise in river, coastal and oceanographic studies. However, practical experience with drifters in glacial hydrology remains limited. Before drifters can be used as general tools in glacial studies, it is necessary to quantify the variability of their measurements. To address this, we conducted repeated field experiments in a 450 m long supraglacial channel with small cylindrical drifters equipped with pressure, magnetometer, acceleration and rotation rate sensors and compared the results. The experiments (n=55) in the supraglacial channel show that the pressure sensors consistently yielded the most accurate data, where values remained within ±0.11 % of the total pressure time-averaged mean (95 % confidence interval). Magnetometer readings also exhibited low variability across deployments, maintaining readings within ±2.45 % of the time-averaged mean of the magnetometer magnitudes. Linear acceleration measurements were found to have a substantially higher variability of ±34.4 % of the time-averaged mean magnitude, and the calculated speeds remained within ±24.5 % of the time-averaged mean along the flow path. Furthermore, our results indicate that prominent shapes in the sensor records are likely to be linked to variations in channel morphology and the associated flow field. Our results show that multimodal drifters can be a useful tool for field measurements inside supraglacial channels. Future deployments of drifters into englacial and subglacial channels promise new opportunities for determining hydraulic and morphologic conditions from repeated measurements of such inaccessible environments. publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Alexander, Andreas Kruusmaa, Maarja Tuhtan, Jeffrey Hodson, Andrew Schuler, Thomas Kääb, Andreas |
spellingShingle |
Alexander, Andreas Kruusmaa, Maarja Tuhtan, Jeffrey Hodson, Andrew Schuler, Thomas Kääb, Andreas Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
author_facet |
Alexander, Andreas Kruusmaa, Maarja Tuhtan, Jeffrey Hodson, Andrew Schuler, Thomas Kääb, Andreas |
author_sort |
Alexander, Andreas |
title |
Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
title_short |
Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
title_full |
Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
title_fullStr |
Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
title_full_unstemmed |
Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
title_sort |
pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2656327 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1009-2020 |
op_coverage |
Svalbard |
geographic |
Svalbard |
geographic_facet |
Svalbard |
genre |
glacier Svalbard The Cryosphere |
genre_facet |
glacier Svalbard The Cryosphere |
op_source |
1009-1023 14 The Cryosphere 3 |
op_relation |
Norges forskningsråd: 223254 Alexander, A., Kruusmaa, M., Tuhtan, J. A., Hodson, A. J., Schuler, T. V., & Kääb, A. (2020). Pressure and inertia sensing drifters for glacial hydrology flow path measurements. The Cryosphere, 14(3), 1009-1023. urn:issn:1994-0416 https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2656327 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1009-2020 cristin:1802096 |
op_rights |
Navngivelse 4.0 Internasjonal http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.no © Author(s) 2020 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1009-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
3 |
container_start_page |
1009 |
op_container_end_page |
1023 |
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1792500150156918784 |