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mGEODAR—A Mobile Radar System for Detection and Monitoring of Gravitational Mass-Movements

Köhler, A; Lok, LB; Felbermayr, S; Peters, N; Brennan, PV; Fischer, J-T; (2020) mGEODAR—A Mobile Radar System for Detection and Monitoring of Gravitational Mass-Movements. Sensors , 20 (21) , Article 6373. 10.3390/s20216373. Green open access

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Abstract

Radar measurements of gravitational mass-movements like snow avalanches have become increasingly important for scientific flow observations, real-time detection and monitoring. Independence of visibility is a main advantage for rapid and reliable detection of those events, and achievable high-resolution imaging proves invaluable for scientific measurements of the complete flow evolution. Existing radar systems are made for either detection with low-resolution or they are large devices and permanently installed at test-sites. We present mGEODAR, a mobile FMCW (frequency modulated continuous wave) radar system for high-resolution measurements and low-resolution gravitational mass-movement detection and monitoring purposes due to a versatile frequency generation scheme. We optimize the performance of different frequency settings with loop cable measurements and show the freespace range sensitivity with data of a car as moving point source. About 15 dB signal-to-noise ratio is achieved for the cable test and about 5 dB or 10 dB for the car in detection and research mode, respectively. By combining continuous recording in the low resolution detection mode with real-time triggering of the high resolution research mode, we expect that mGEODAR enables autonomous measurement campaigns for infrastructure safety and mass-movement research purposes in rapid response to changing weather and snow conditions.

Type: Article
Title: mGEODAR—A Mobile Radar System for Detection and Monitoring of Gravitational Mass-Movements
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/s20216373
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.3390/s20216373
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: FMCW Radar; natural hazards; geophysical mass-movements; flow dynamics; movement detection
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Electronic and Electrical Eng
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10115209
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