An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska
Ice roads and bridges across rivers, estuaries, and lakes are common transportation routes during winter in regions of the circumpolar north. Ice thickness, hydraulic hazards, climate variability and associated warmer air temperatures have always raised safety concerns and uncertainty among those wh...
Published in: | Cold Regions Science and Technology |
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Language: | English |
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ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/15069 2024-06-23T07:57:27+00:00 An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska Richards, Elizabeth Stuefer, Svetlana Rangel, Rodrigo Correa Maio, Christopher Belz, Nathan Daanen, Ronald 2023-03-08 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/15069 en_US eng Elsevier Cold Regions Science and Technology 210 (2023) 103819 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/15069 Cold Regions Science and Technology https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2023.103819 Alaska River Ice Ice thickness GPR Ice Road Technical Report 2023 ftunivalaska https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2023.103819 2024-06-11T14:12:56Z Ice roads and bridges across rivers, estuaries, and lakes are common transportation routes during winter in regions of the circumpolar north. Ice thickness, hydraulic hazards, climate variability and associated warmer air temperatures have always raised safety concerns and uncertainty among those who travel floating ice road routes. One way to address safety concerns is to monitor ice conditions throughout the season. We tested ground penetrating radar (GPR) for its ability and accuracy in measuring floating ice thickness under three specific conditions: 1) presence of snow cover and overflow, 2) presence of snow cover, and 3) bare ice, all common to Interior Alaska rivers. In addition, frazil ice was evaluated for its ability to interfere with the GPR measurement of ice thickness. We collected manual ice measurements and GPR cross-sectional transects over 2 years on the Tanana River near Fairbanks, Alaska, and for 1 year on the Yukon River near Tanana, Alaska. Ground truth measurements were compared with ice thickness calculated from an average velocity model created using GPR data. The error was as low as 2.3–6.4% on the Yukon River (Condition 3) and 4.6–9.5% on the Tanana River (Conditions 1 and 2), with the highest errors caused by overflow conditions. We determined that certain environmental conditions such as snow cover and overflow change the validity of an average velocity model for ice thickness identification using GPR, while frazil ice accumulation does not have a detectable effect on the strength of radar reflection at the ice-water interface with the frequencies tested. Ground penetrating radar is a powerful tool for measuring river ice thickness, yet further research is needed to advance the ability of rural communities to monitor ice thickness using fewer time-intensive manual measurements to determine the safety of ice cover on transportation routes. Yes Report Yukon river Alaska Yukon University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Fairbanks Yukon Cold Regions Science and Technology 210 103819 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
Alaska River Ice Ice thickness GPR Ice Road |
spellingShingle |
Alaska River Ice Ice thickness GPR Ice Road Richards, Elizabeth Stuefer, Svetlana Rangel, Rodrigo Correa Maio, Christopher Belz, Nathan Daanen, Ronald An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska |
topic_facet |
Alaska River Ice Ice thickness GPR Ice Road |
description |
Ice roads and bridges across rivers, estuaries, and lakes are common transportation routes during winter in regions of the circumpolar north. Ice thickness, hydraulic hazards, climate variability and associated warmer air temperatures have always raised safety concerns and uncertainty among those who travel floating ice road routes. One way to address safety concerns is to monitor ice conditions throughout the season. We tested ground penetrating radar (GPR) for its ability and accuracy in measuring floating ice thickness under three specific conditions: 1) presence of snow cover and overflow, 2) presence of snow cover, and 3) bare ice, all common to Interior Alaska rivers. In addition, frazil ice was evaluated for its ability to interfere with the GPR measurement of ice thickness. We collected manual ice measurements and GPR cross-sectional transects over 2 years on the Tanana River near Fairbanks, Alaska, and for 1 year on the Yukon River near Tanana, Alaska. Ground truth measurements were compared with ice thickness calculated from an average velocity model created using GPR data. The error was as low as 2.3–6.4% on the Yukon River (Condition 3) and 4.6–9.5% on the Tanana River (Conditions 1 and 2), with the highest errors caused by overflow conditions. We determined that certain environmental conditions such as snow cover and overflow change the validity of an average velocity model for ice thickness identification using GPR, while frazil ice accumulation does not have a detectable effect on the strength of radar reflection at the ice-water interface with the frequencies tested. Ground penetrating radar is a powerful tool for measuring river ice thickness, yet further research is needed to advance the ability of rural communities to monitor ice thickness using fewer time-intensive manual measurements to determine the safety of ice cover on transportation routes. Yes |
format |
Report |
author |
Richards, Elizabeth Stuefer, Svetlana Rangel, Rodrigo Correa Maio, Christopher Belz, Nathan Daanen, Ronald |
author_facet |
Richards, Elizabeth Stuefer, Svetlana Rangel, Rodrigo Correa Maio, Christopher Belz, Nathan Daanen, Ronald |
author_sort |
Richards, Elizabeth |
title |
An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska |
title_short |
An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska |
title_full |
An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska |
title_fullStr |
An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska |
title_full_unstemmed |
An evaluation of GPR monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: A case study in Alaska |
title_sort |
evaluation of gpr monitoring methods on varying river ice conditions: a case study in alaska |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/15069 |
geographic |
Fairbanks Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Fairbanks Yukon |
genre |
Yukon river Alaska Yukon |
genre_facet |
Yukon river Alaska Yukon |
op_source |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2023.103819 |
op_relation |
Cold Regions Science and Technology 210 (2023) 103819 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/15069 Cold Regions Science and Technology |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2023.103819 |
container_title |
Cold Regions Science and Technology |
container_volume |
210 |
container_start_page |
103819 |
_version_ |
1802651094281617408 |