Flat Earth declared that it has designed an advanced mobile snow depth sensor using the Novelda AS NVA6000 impulse based radar chip.
The SDS-715 radar system offers a non-contact approach for finding the snow depth. It could measure at a range of 0.15 to 2.0 m with a 3.5 cm accuracy, depending on snow conditions. The robust and affordable snow depth measurement system is intended for snow grooming activities at the Nordic and Alpine ski resorts. Every second, the snow depth underneath the snowcat is measured almost every 3 m at 8 kph.
Being much economical than existing ground penetrating radar systems, the system when combined with CatWorks, a snowcat information and navigation system from Flat Earth, could create depth maps of the resort trails, which could be viewed in Google Earth.
According to Doug Roberts, CEO of Flat Earth, the Novelda NVA6000 is a highly innovative radar transceiver, which provides high precision and frame rate along with excellent penetration abilities.
The radar transceiver is integrated on a single chip and transmits high bandwidth pulses. It offers a number of enhancements and value-added features when compared to conventional technology. It utilizes even short microwave pulses and thus is perfect for high resolution ranging applications.
Source: http://www.novelda.no