Snow height - ultra sonic sensor
Parameter to be measured:
Snow height
Method:
Ultra sonic sensor
Equipment:
Ultra sonic distance sensor: e.g. Campbell Scientific SR50 or USH-8 from company Sommer
Logger: Campbell recommend their loggers. But it can be connected to other loggers, e.g. a DL2E from Delta-T
Advantages:
- Continous measurement
Disadvantages:
- Expensive
- While the sensor itself without control electronic is cheap (about 10$ for robotics) connecting it to a logger requires quite some knowledge about digital electronics and programming. The signal from the sensor is usually a puls with a length proportional to the distance. Therefore, the more expensive (about 1000$) sensors from scientific instrumentation companies are usually used
Problems/Questions:
Starting a measuring cicle in the SR50 from the DL2E was difficult, because the pulse generated in the DL2E was too long. In the end a solution using a micro controller was found.
Links
Projects that used the above equipment
- http://brandenburg.geoecology.uni-potsdam.de/projekte/malalcahuello/index.php
- http://brandenburg.geoecology.uni-potsdam.de/projekte/opaque/index.php
Other related web sites