Modeling of Through-the-Snow Electric Field Propagation for Rescue Systems

Propagation models for avalanche rescue systems are studied here. The paper focuses on the through-the-snow electric field propagation at ISM frequencies for air, snow and three-layered models. The latter includes geometrical optics and Sommerfeld-type integrals using numerical solution in Matlab. Furthermore, FEM analysis by COMSOL serves to validate numerical integration. In addition, the simulation results are fitted to experimental data, finding the optimal model for the problem under study. The FEM method allows considering more realistic geometries for the problem, albeit the other solving methods are simpler and require fewer computational resources.