SAR localization of passive RFID tags under snow and vegetation using a mobile reader antenna

Passive RFID tags are opening new capabilities of monitoring in geoscience [1], applied to landslide [2-3], snowpack [4] or riverine pebble monitoring. This study investigate the ability to localize passive RFID tags (working at 868 MHz) from the air in harsh conditions met in natural areas outdoors. The tags are localized with the synthetic aperture radar method (SAR)  with a mobile reader from above, installed on a rail and equiped with a differential GNSS. The tags are localized either directly on the ground, under a vegetal cover, or under a snow cover, and the localization accuracy is evaluated in each case. This technique opens the possibility to monitor ground displacement even under snow or vegetal coverage, that challenge most of existing displacement measurement techniques.

 

 

Related studies on the topic :

[1] Le Breton, M., Liébault, F., Baillet, L., Charléty, A., Larose, É., Tedjini, S., 2022. Dense and long-term monitoring of earth surface processes with passive RFID—a review. Earth-Science Reviews 234, 104 225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104225

[2] Charléty, A., Le Breton, M., Larose, E., Baillet, L., 2022. 2D Phase-Based RFID Localization for On-Site Landslide Monitoring. Remote Sensing 14, 3 577. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14153577

[3] Le Breton, M., Baillet, L., Larose, E., Rey, E., Benech, P., Jongmans, D., Guyoton, F., Jaboyedoff, M., 2019. Passive radio-frequency identification ranging, a dense and weather-robust technique for landslide displacement monitoring. Engineering Geology 250, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2018.12.027

[4] Le Breton, M., Larose, É., Baillet, L., Lejeune, Y., van Herwijnen, A., 2022. Monitoring snowpack SWE and temperature using RFID tags as wireless sensors. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-761