Snow poles are inexpensive systems composed of a wooden mast with temperature sensors affixed at varying heights with the purpose of estimating the snow depth. They are frequently utilised in cold, remote regions where the maintenance of complex monitoring instruments becomes impractical. In this study, snow cover thickness is determined using different methods, based on the thermal behaviour of air temperature measured by a snow pole on Deception Island, Antarctica. The methods are compared to high-resolution measurements of snow depth obtained using an ultrasonic sensor at the same site. A new modified method is proposed and shown to give the best results. Errors and sensitivity to chosen thresholds of the various methods have been compared. Sensitivity tests have been also conducted to evaluate the impact of missing data from some of the sensors. Finally, the insulating effect on the thermal signal produced by the snow is used to obtain information on the snowpack density. Promising results have been found from this effort, opening new possibilities for the usage of snow poles and may lead to future studies.

中文翻译：

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利用不同高度气温数据评估积雪厚度和密度的新方法和误差评估

雪杆是一种廉价的系统，由一根木桅杆组成，温度传感器固定在不同的高度，目的是估计雪深。它们经常用于寒冷、偏远地区，在这些地区维护复杂的监测仪器变得不切实际。在这项研究中，根据南极洲欺骗岛雪杆测量的气温热行为，使用不同的方法确定积雪厚度。将这些方法与在同一地点使用超声波传感器获得的高分辨率雪深测量结果进行比较。提出了一种新的修改方法并证明可以给出最佳结果。比较了各种方法的误差和对所选阈值的敏感性。还进行了灵敏度测试，以评估某些传感器丢失数据的影响。最后，利用雪产生的热信号的绝缘效应来获取积雪密度的信息。这项工作取得了有希望的结果，为雪杖的使用开辟了新的可能性，并可能导致未来的研究。