Snow research and bird tracking

Part 1 - Snow Research

Wet-snow avalanches remain a major challenge in avalanche forecasting, primarily because of limited process understanding and the lack of reliable real-time information on snowpack conditions. A key parameter is the liquid water content (LWC) of snow. If it exceeds roughly 3 % volume, the mechanical strength of the snowpack drops significantly, and wet-snow avalanches become more likely.

However, measuring LWC is not trivial. Most existing devices rely on a capacitive measurement principle, which requires a priori knowledge or additional measurements of the dry-snow density. This complicates field measurements and makes remote sensing particularly difficult.

This seminar presents ongoing work on a new measurement system that removes this limitation. The approach is based on the attenuation of an RF signal along a microstrip embedded in the snow. According to well-established snow models, this attenuation is largely density-insensitive, so the method does not require additional knowledge of the snow density. Multiple field and laboratory campaigns support this claim and demonstrate the density insensitivity of the proposed method.

Part 2 - Industry Project with Zoo Zürich

The second part covers my ongoing work at the institute in Switzerland. Zoo Zürich is building a new aviary, home to some 400 birds including the hyacinth macaw. To support their research, the zoo wants to track the live position of every individual. To that end, we are developing a custom UWB localization system consisting of a small, battery-powered mobile tag carried by each bird and 50 receiving anchors mounted on the metallic structure of the aviary. This part presents the proposed architecture and the challenges of designing such low-power tags and highly synchronized anchors.