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  • Yildiz_et_al (accepted version)

    Rights statement: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Yildiz, S., Akyurek, Z., & Binley, A. (2021). Quantifying snow water equivalent using terrestrial ground penetrating radar and unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetry. Hydrological Processes, 35: e14190. doi: 10.1002/hyp.14190 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1002%2Fhyp.14190 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.

    Accepted author manuscript, 2.66 MB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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Quantifying snow water equivalent using terrestrial GPR and UAV photogrammetry

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Article numbere14190
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>31/05/2021
<mark>Journal</mark>Hydrological Processes
Issue number5
Volume35
Number of pages15
Publication StatusPublished
Early online date20/05/21
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

This study demonstrates the potential value of a combined UAV Photogrammetry and ground penetrating radar (GPR) approach to map snow water equivalent (SWE) over large scales. SWE estimation requires two different physical parameters (snow depth and density), which are currently difficult to measure with the spatial and temporal resolution desired for basin-wide studies. UAV photogrammetry can provide very high-resolution spatially continuous snow depths (SD) at the basin scale, but does not measure snow densities. GPR allows nondestructive quantitative snow investigation if the radar velocity is known. Using photogrammetric snow depths and GPR two-way travel times (TWT) of reflections at the snow-ground interface, radar velocities in snowpack can be determined. Snow density (RSN) is then estimated from the radar propagation velocity (which is related to electrical permittivity of snow) via empirical formulas. A Phantom-4 Pro UAV and a MALA GX450 HDR model GPR mounted on a ski mobile were used to determine snow parameters. A snow-free digital surface model (DSM) was obtained from the photogrammetric survey conducted in September 2017. Then, another survey in synchronization with a GPR survey was conducted in February 2019 whilst the snowpack was approximately at its maximum thickness. Spatially continuous snow depths were calculated by subtracting the snow-free DSM from the snow-covered DSM. Radar velocities in the snowpack along GPR survey lines were computed by using UAV-based snow depths and GPR reflections to obtain snow densities and SWEs. The root mean square error of the obtained SWEs (384 mm average) is 63 mm, indicating good agreement with independent SWE observations and the error lies within acceptable uncertainty limits.

Bibliographic note

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article:Yildiz, S., Akyurek, Z., & Binley, A. (2021). Quantifying snow water equivalent using terrestrial ground penetrating radar and unmanned aerial vehicle photogrammetry. Hydrological Processes, 35: e14190. doi: 10.1002/hyp.14190 which has been published in final form at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1002%2Fhyp.14190 This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance With Wiley Terms and Conditions for self-archiving.