A new in situ sensor for large-scale snow-cover monitoring

Abstract A new in situ sensor for the simultaneous measurement of snow water equivalent, snow density and liquid-water content is presented in this paper. The system consists of radio frequency transmission lines of up to 25 m length cast in a flat PVC band, which can be set up either horizontally to monitor single snow-layer properties or sloping from a mast to the soil surface to determine vertical snowpack properties. The dielectric coefficient along the flat-band cable is measured with a time-domain reflectometer at high frequencies, and with a low-frequency impedance analyzer. The performance of the sensor system was tested during two winter seasons (2001–03) at the high-alpine test site Weissfluhjoch, Davos, Switzerland. The cable suspension and set-up of the sloping cable was shown to be critical with regard to stability and the formation of unwanted air gaps along the cable. Overall, the sensing system proved quite robust and produced results in agreement with manual snowpack observations.