A compact portable resonance probe system for in situ measurements of snow conditions

Abstract

A resonance probe for measuring the dielectric properties of snow in terms of the resonance frequency is described and tested. The dielectric properties of snow are closely related to the density and the water content in snow. Having a probe capable of measuring the dielectric properties is therefore a useful tool for anyone working with quantitative descriptions of snow properties. In situ measurements with the snow sensor system have been conducted during the autumn semester of 2017. To verify and correlate the in situ measurements, numerical simulations and density measurements have also been conducted. Measurements performed in situ have been compared to analytical data and numerically simulated data. By comparing the results, relative errors ranging from 1.5 to 7.2\% were found between the measured resonance frequency, and the numerically simulated resonance frequency.