Snow and ice covered areas were the birthplace environments for GPR use. Snow and ice are very transparent to GPR signals. Common applications include snow depth monitoring for ski slope management, ice thickness for winter road safety, location of avalanche victims, glaciological and polar ice-cap research.
Glaciology and Ice Sheets
Snow Management
Ice Thickness
Glaciology and Ice Sheets
Glaciers and ice-sheets are excellent environments for GPR. Growing interest in climate change has accelerated the use of GPR. Applications have included characterizing the volume of ice, examining the ice structure to understand the paleo-climate and help plan the use of this valuable supply of freshwater.
Snow Management
Snow thickness is a critical component of managing ski slopes. Knowing when to make or move snow has major cost implications. Daily mapping of snow thickness with SnowScan HandHeld and Groomer-Mounted Configurations enable ski resorts to easily manage grooming and snow-making operations.
Snow pack represents a valuable water reservoir and its thickness is required for hydrogeology forecasting. SnowScan GPR readily maps snow thicknesses and use of the GPR wave velocity provides snow-to-water content conversion factors.
Locating buried avalanche victims is another area of GPR use. Rescue Radar is designed specifically to help rescue teams quickly locate buried survivors.
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| Checking Cross-country Trails at Resorts |
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Avalanche Prediction Monitoring |
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| Evaluating Ski Slopes at Resorts |
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Detecting Movement of AvalancheVictims |
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| Water Content in Snow |
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Ice Thickness
In Alaska and Northern Canada, ice roads and runways are regularly used to transport people, goods and equipment to isolated communities, exploration camps or mine sites. IceMap GPR systems provide a rapid means of regularly checking ice thickness conditions. GPS positioned field data enable creation of ice thickness maps and time-lapse views.