Articles | Volume 15, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-15-227-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-15-227-2026
Research article
 | 
17 Sep 2026
Research article |  | 17 Sep 2026

A low-cost surface ablation monitoring system using wind-induced motion of mass-balance stakes

Felix St-Amour, Hsin Cynthia Chiang, Jamie Cox, Eamon Egan, Ian Hendricksen, Jacob Rodrigo, Jonathan Sievers, and Laura Thomson

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Cited articles

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Short summary
Glacier surface melt is often studied by measuring the exposed length of vertical stakes that are partially embedded in the ice. We present new autonomous instrumentation that monitors this exposed length continuously by measuring wind-induced vibrations in the stake. Initial lab and field tests show that this measurement technique yields centimetre-level precision. Our instrumentation, which is low-cost, opens new possibilities for enabling automated measurements on large numbers of stakes.
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