Bradford, JohnBartrand, Jonah A. G.2022-10-032022-10-032022https://hdl.handle.net/11124/15359Includes bibliographical references.2022 Spring.Alpine snowpack accounts for a majority of summer surface stream flow in many areas of the western US. This surface water supports, agriculture, municipal water supplies, recreation, and fisheries. Annual variations in total snowpack complicate efficient allocation of this important, finite resource. To improve the accuracy and ease of snow water equivalent (SWE) surveys, we propose using of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) from a low-flying aerial platform to quantify SWE quickly and accurately in both wet and dry snow. We present a method for producing synthetic data and a workflow for recovering SWE from noisy data by combining velocities derived from diffraction analysis and Q∗ derived from spectral peak comparisons. Our recovered SWE values have an average error of 11.0% in wet and dry snow. Aerial GPR has the potential to effectively quantify snowpack SWE, providing a valuable tool for water managers to improve the quality of life for those that rely on this important resource.born digitalmasters thesesengCopyright of the original work is retained by the author.diffractiondronesfrequency-dependent attenuationground-penetrating radarsnow water equivalentText2022-10-01