Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Complex Dielectric Permittivity Measurements From Ground-Penetrating Radar Data To Estimate Snow Liquid Water Content In The Pendular Regime, John H. Bradford, Joel T. Harper, Joel Brown

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Monitoring the snow water equivalent (SWE) is critical to effective management of water resources in many parts of the world that depend on the mountain snowpack for water storage. There are currently no methods to remotely sense SWE with accuracy over large lateral distances in the steep and often forested terrain of mountain basins. Previous studies have shown that measurements of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) velocity can provide accurate estimates of SWE in dry snow. Introduction of liquid water into the snowpack results in a three-phase system that cannot be accurately characterized with GPR velocity alone. We show that measuring the …