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US 12,416,586 B2Granted
System and process for determining the water equivalent content of a snowpack
AssigneeFINAPP S.r.l.
InventorsLuca Stevanato, Marcello Lunardon, Sandra Moretto, Giancarlo Nebbia
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Abstract
The present invention relates to a system (S) and a process for determining the water equivalent content of a snowpack (Snow Water Equivalent—SWE).
Claims10
A system for determining the water equivalent content of a snowpack comprising:
- a first device configured to be positioned at a height with respect to the maximum expected thickness of said snowpack, said first device comprising a first device first module adapted to measure a flux of electrons and muons from the interactions of the primary cosmic rays with the upper layers of the atmosphere and a control unit;
- a second device configured to be positioned at ground level and possibly covered by said snowpack, said second device comprising a second device first module adapted to measure a flux of cosmic electrons and muons incident on the ground;
- wherein said control unit is connected to said a first device first module and to said second device first module and is adapted to process the measurements of the flux of electrons and muons from the interactions of the primary cosmic rays with the upper layers of the atmosphere made by said a first device first module and the measurements of the flux of cosmic electrons and muons incident on the ground made by said second device first module to determine the water equivalent content of said snowpack.
A process for determining the water equivalent content of a snowpack comprising the steps of:
- positioning at a height with respect to the maximum expected thickness of said snowpack a first device comprising a first device first module configured to measure a flux of electrons and muons from the interactions of primary cosmic rays with upper layers of the atmosphere and a control unit;
- positioning at ground level and possibly buried in said snowpack a second device comprising a second device first module configured to measure the flux of cosmic electrons and muons incident on the ground;
- processing the measurements made by said first device first module and by said second device first module by means of said control unit to obtain a determination of the water equivalent content of said snowpack;
- wherein the determination of the water equivalent content of said snowpack is obtained from the measurement of the flux of cosmic electrons and muons incident on the ground carried out by the second device first module normalised with respect to the measurement of the flux of electrons and muons from interactions of the primary cosmic rays with the upper layers of the atmosphere carried out by the first device first module.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.