Validating the Variability of Snow Accumulation and Melting From GPS-Reflected Signals: Forward Modeling

The variability of snow accumulation and melting is one of the most important interactions of the Earth's surface with atmosphere through energy transmission and mass balance. In this paper, the effects of snow accumulation and melting together with bare soil and fixed snow depth on the reflected global positioning system (GPS) signals are investigated using GPS antenna gains and multipath signal. The reflected GPS signals are modeled and employed to analyze the interactions of snow accumulation, snow melting, bare soil, and fixed snow depth at BAKE and KUUJ GPS stations in Northern Canada. The results show the clear independency of the snow accumulation and melting variations with bare soil and fixed snow depth, which are validated from GPS-reflected signals as well. The modeled reflected GPS signals indicate the higher frequency of snow accumulation and snow melting than that of bare soil and fixed snow depth, while the estimated power spectral density of the GPS-reflected signals shows the higher signal power of coherence function difference. Furthermore, the GPS observations at BAKE and KUUJ sites confirm such variations with a good agreement during the snow accumulation, melting, bare soil, and fixed snow depth on the ground.