Automated Frozen Soil Observation Based on Micro-radar Technology

Introducing ultrasonic radar/sensor into current China Meteorological Agency (CMA)'s frozen soil/frost line observation protocol, a method is proposed to automate soil freeze/thaw state monitoring. Two prototypes were built and tested in both lab condition and onsite experiment. Results suggest that the proposed method exhibits application potential and merits further investment in research. The tested prototypes can capture soil freezing process in one-millimeter accuracy and 10 mins data interval. Comparing to CMA's best practices with one-centimeter accuracy and one data point per day, the proposed method not only automate the monitoring process but also provides better dataset. Challenges emerged during the onsite experiment and improvements were proposed to address the issues.