See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/344887259

Analysis of atmospheric refraction on Electronic Distance Measurements

applied to landslide monitoring

Conference Paper · October 2020

CITATIONS READS

0 181

3 authors, including:

G. Ferhat J.-P. Malet

National Institute for Applied Sciences, Strasbourg France CNRS / University of Strasbourg
45 PUBLICATIONS   399 CITATIONS    429 PUBLICATIONS   7,637 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Changes View project

Hybrid gravimetry in active volcanic and geothermal areas View project

All content following this page was uploaded by G. Ferhat on 26 October 2020.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Analysis of atmospheric refraction on Electronic Distance
Measurements applied to landslide monitoring

Ferhat, G. 1, 2, Rouillon, H. 2 and Malet J.-P. 1

1
Institut de Physique du Globe de Strasbourg, UMR7516 CNRS/University of
Strasbourg/EOST, France.
E-mail: gilbert.ferhat@unistra.fr, jeanphilippe.malet@unistra.fr
2
INSA Strasbourg, National Institute of Applied Sciences, Department of Surveying
Engineering, Strasbourg, France.

Abstract
We seek to monitor landslide surface displacements using total station measurements.
Precision on the position of the reflectors located in the landslide depends mainly on the
distance, the difference in elevation, and the property of the atmosphere. For short distances
(< few hundred meters), standard meteorological models for computing refraction effect can
be applied on Electronic Distance Measurements (EDM) and can provide sufficient precision.
For long distances (> 1 km), which is mostly the case of landslide deformation monitoring in
mountainous areas, it is necessary to compute more rigorously the atmospheric contribution
on the position of the reflectors. We will illustrate some of the existing methods to compute
the refraction effect on EDM measurements at long-distances.

Key words: landslides monitoring, EDM, refraction correction

1 INTRODUCTION

A better understanding of landslide processes requires to characterize the triggering factors

and their impacts on landslide motion. These factors are often time dependent and for this
reason it is very complex to have a quantitative approach without permanent and long-term
in-situ observations (Lebourg et al., 2010). In order to better assess landslide hazard, it is
important to document the surficial displacements in space and time, and correlate it to
meteorological and hydrological conditions. This is why, some landslides are equipped with
permanent or semi-permanent monitoring systems. Among these nearly continuous systems,
total stations are often used as a standard and well constrained technique (Bertacchini et al.,
2011; Gumilar et al., 2017; Artese & Perrelli, 2018). In this paper, we focused on the La
Valette landslide located in the South-East French Alps. La Valette is one of the landslides
monitored by the French National Landslide Observatory OMIV “Observatoire
Multidisciplinaire des Instabilités de Versants” (Malet et al., 2016; www.ano-omiv.cnrs.fr).

TS XX – Title of the session

INGEO & SIG 2020 – 8th International Conference on Engineering Surveying & 4th SIG
Symposium on Engineering Geodesy, Dubrovnik, Croatia, April 1– 4, 2020
2 INGEO 2020

2 THE LA VALETTE LANDSLIDE

The La Valette landslide is located in the South-East French Alps (Barcelonnette Basin,
Ubaye catchment; Figure 1), where the presence of a thrust fault separating highly susceptible
clay-shale sediments (Jurassic black marls) at the bottom and sandstone and limestone
competent rocks at the top is responsible for many landslides in the region (Samyn et al.,
2012; Travelletti et al., 2013). The landslide was triggered in March 1982 at the contact
between these two main geological units. The deformation is attributed to the steep slopes and
the increase in pore-fluid pressure resulting from the different hydraulic conductivities of the
two geological units (Samyn et al., 2012).The landslide has been subject to numerous
investigations using a variety of direct and indirect methods, such as remote sensing
(terrestrial and airborne LiDAR), geotechnical analysis of samples recovered from boreholes,
and geodetic measurements (e.g., extensometers, inclinometers, GPS), for the spatio-temporal
assessment of surface de-formation (Raucoules et al., 2013; Malet et al., 2013; Travelletti et
al., 2013).

Fig. 1 Geomorphological setting of the La Valette landslide on the south-facing slope of the
Barcelonnette basin. a) General view of the landslide to the northeast. b) View of the main
scarp and the crown areas; The displacement profiles measured by the “Restauration des
Terrains de Montagne, RTM” office to monitor the retrogression of the crown are also
indicated (Travelletti et al., 2013)

2.1 SURFACE DISPLACEMENT MONITORING AT LA VALETTE LANDSLIDE

Episodic surface displacement data are already available from EDM measurements, carried
out by the “Restauration des Terrains en Montagne” Service (RTM) in charge of risk
management and from differential SAR interferometric studies (Vietmeier et al., 1999,
Squarzoni et al., 2003; Schlögel et al., 2015). The EDM measurements provide a history of
the landslide surface evolution since 1988 along a cross-section located in the central part of
the landslide. These data indicate an average velocity of about 1 to 5 cm.day-1, two velocity
Ferhat et al.: Analysis of atmospheric refraction on EDM measurements applied to landslides monitoring 3

peaks in spring and autumn, spatially variable velocity from the top to the bottom of the
landslide. The periods with the highest recorded velocity were in spring–summer 1989,
autumn–winter 1991–1992, and spring 2001 and 2008. Since September 2019, a permanent
total station (Trimble S9 DR HP, 1”, Long Range) has been installed to monitor the positions
of 54 targets every 1 to 3 hours, depending of the acquisition protocol (Figure 2).

Fig. 2 Location of the total station and the 54 targets at the La Valette landslide. The targets
are positioned at distances from 350 to 2300 m and elevation from 1300 to 2100 m.

Fig. 3 Topographical profile between the total station and the A013 target located on top of
the landslide (from www.geoportail.gouv.fr).
4 INGEO 2020

We computed the coordinates of the total station five targets measured by GNSS RTK in
October 1st, 2019 (Rouillon, 2020). The targets are distributed along the whole landslide with
a higher density in the lower zone which is supposed to be more susceptible to accelerate and
because it is closer to the inhabited area downstream (Figure 2, Figure 4).
Figure 4 presents the relative position of the 54 targets from to the total station. The closest
target is at a horizontal distance of 343 m and the furthest at 2230 m. The differences in height
vary from -48 m to 675 m. Because of the long distances and the high height variations, air
temperature and pressure change creating variations of atmospheric refraction. In a standard
model, air temperature T decreases in the troposphere almost linearly with height h according
to dT/dh = - 0.0055oC.m-1 (Torge & Muller, 2001).

Fig. 4 Locations of the 54 targets (red dots) relative to the total station (red cross).

3 ATMOSPHERIC REFRACTION FOR EDM

The phase refractive index n of a medium is defined as

n = c0 / c (1)

where c0 is the velocity of light in vacuum and c is the velocity of light in a medium (phase
velocity). The refractive index of the air is a function of:
- the gaseous composition of the atmosphere, which is here assumed as constant,
- the amount of water vapour pressure in the atmosphere,
- the temperature of the gaseous mixture,
- the frequency of the radiated signal.

In geodesy, the coefficient of refraction k represents a common way to quantify terrestrial

refraction. It may be defined as the ratio of the radius of the Earth R and the radius of the line
of sight r, i.e., the radius of a circular arc used as a mathematical model to approximate a
complex curved path of light (Brocks, 1950; Kahmen and Faig, 1988).

k=R/r (2)
The curvature of the wave path (1/r) is defined (Rueger, 1990; Torge & Muller 2001) with:

1/ r = - sin z (1/n) (dn/dh) (3)

Ferhat et al.: Analysis of atmospheric refraction on EDM measurements applied to landslides monitoring 5

where (dn/dh) is the vertical gradient of the refractive index of the air (n), and z is the angle
between the direction of the gradient of the refractive index and the tangent of the wave path.
The change of n with height h is caused by the vertical density gradient of the air.

Fig. 5 Daily cycle model of the coefficient of refraction for different heights of ray paths
above the ground for clear and calm summer days over grass in Central Europe (Hübner,
1978).

On the basis of reciprocal vertical angle measurements near Hannover (Germany), Gauss
proposed an average value of the refraction coefficient k of approximately +0.13 (Brunner,
1984, Hirt et al., 2010). The Gaussian value of k is well known in surveying applications as a
standard value of terrestrial refraction insolation causing the structure to bend away from the
sun with a specific delay controlled by the sun azimuth and elevation. The terrestrial
refraction presents a diurnal (Figure 3) and a seasonal variation.

3.1 MANUFACTURER ATMOSPHERIC CORRECTION

The total station used at La Valette is a Trimble S9 DR HP (1”= 0.3 mgon, 1 mm + 1 ppm)
providing observation data in a native GKA file format (date of measurements, horizontal and
vertical angles, slope distance).The slope distance corrected for atmospheric effect is
computed by:
SDcorrected = SD (1 + D) (4)
where SD is the (raw) slope distance and D is the atmospheric correction. The Trimble S9
manufacturer provides the following formula for D (in ppm):
D = (J – N x P / (t + 273.16)) x 10-6 (5)
where P is the air pressure in mbar, t is the air temperature in degree Celsius. J and N are
constants supplied by the EDM manufacturer. N is the refractive index and J is the carrier
wavelength. For the Trimble S9, the values for N and J are respectively 278.77885605 and
80.65533842.
6 INGEO 2020

Using Equation 5, we can compute atmospheric effect on the (raw) slope distance over the
period September 1 to November 15, 2019. Figure 6 shows the effect of the air temperature
and air pressure variation for three slope distances. The atmospheric effect is strongly
correlated to air temperature variations at the altitude of the total station. These effects are in
the order of 2 cm at 500 m up to 12 cm for longer distances (2500 m).

Fig. 6 Atmospheric effects on slope distance and simulated model correction (Top) for three
slope distances (500, 1000 and 2500 m) using the air temperature and air pressure measured
at the Trimble S9 total station (Bottom) for the period September 1 to November 15, 2019.

3.2 DETERMINATION OT THE REFRACTIVE INDEX

In theory, Electromagnetic Distance measurements must be corrected with an integration of

the refractive index over the entire wave path (Rueger, 1990) from air temperature, air
pressure and air humidity. In practice, simplified methods based on endpoint measurements
are usually adopted.
For simplicity, we first used only air temperature and air pressure at the station elevation
(Figure 6). Standard procedures recommend to use a representative refractive index of a line
computed from meteorological observations taken at one or both endpoints of the line
(Rueger, 1990). For measurement lines above of few kilometres and if high precision is
required, air temperature and pressure at both endpoints should be computed separately for
both terminals. The mean refractive index is then used to correct the measured distance. This
procedure necessitates to observe meteorological data at the top of the landslide.
Other specific procedures exist for a better estimation of the refractive index. One consists of
measuring the atmospheric static parameters along the line of sight using a small aircraft
(Savšek et al., 2013). Another simplified method used at La Clapière landslide by Follacci
[1999] is to use distances on stable targets to compute a simple correction to be transferred to
targets located on the landslide.
Ferhat et al.: Analysis of atmospheric refraction on EDM measurements applied to landslides monitoring 7

4 CONCLUSION

The La Valette landslide has a length of 2 km for a variable width of 0.2 km in the lower and
medium parts of the landslide, up to 0.5 km in the upper part. In order to monitor
continuously the surface velocity, an automated total station Trimble S9 HP has been
installed. It performs measurements on 54 targets. Distance measurements vary from 343 m to
2.23 km. For the moment, a simple procedure for computing atmospheric corrections on slope
distance has been applied. These corrections vary from 2 cm at 500 m up to 12 cm at more
than 2000m. Future analysis will integrate meteorological observations at the top of the
landslide.

Ackwnoledgments:
The authors would like to thank the support of E. Godrie and H. Collomb (Restauration des
Terrain de Montagne / RTM04, Barcelonnette, FR) and C. Fontaine (GEOTOPO, Gleizé, FR)
for the setup of the total station and targets on the landslide.

REFERENCES

ARTESE, S. & M., PERRELLI (2018). Monitoring a landslide with high accuracy by total
station: A DTM-based model to correct for the atmospheric effects. Geosciences, 8(2): pp 46.
BERTACCHINI, Eleonora et al. 2011. Atmospheric corrections for topographic monitoring
systems in landslides. TS06G - GNSS and Land Deformation (Flash), 4905: 1–15. FIG
Working Week 2011 Bridging the Gap between Cultures Marrakech, Morocco, 18-22 May
2011.
BOMFORD, G. (1980). Geodesy, 4th ed., Clarendon, Oxford, U. K.
BROCKS, K. (1950). Die Lichtstrahlkrümmung in Bodennähe. Tabellen des
Refraktionskoeffizienten, I. Teil (Bereich des Präzisionsnivellements), Dtsch. Hydrogr. Z.,
3(3–4), 241–248.
BRUNNER, F. K. (1984). Geodetic Refraction: Effects of electromagnetic Wave Propagation
Through the Atmosphere, Springer, Berlin.
FOLLACCI, J.-P. (1999). Seize ans de surveillance du glissement de La Clapière (Alpes-
Maritimes). Bull. Labo. Ponts et Chaussées, 220: 35-51. In French.
GUMILAR, Irwan et al. 2017. Landslide monitoring using terrestrial laser scanner and robotic
total station in Rancabali, West Java (Indonesia) International Symposium on Earth Hazard
and Disaster Mitigation (ISEDM): The 6th Annual Symposium on Earthquake and Related
Geohazard Research for Disaster Risk Reduction. AIP Conference Proceedings 1857, 060001
(2017); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4987084
HIRT, Christian et al 2010. Monitoring of the refraction coefficient in the lower atmosphere
using a controlled setup of simultaneous reciprocal vertical angle measurements, J. Geophys.
Res., 115, D21102, https://doi:10.1029/2010JD014067
KAHMEN, H., & W. FAIG (1988). Surveying, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin.
LEBOURG, Thierry et al. 2010. Landslides triggered factors analysed by time lapse electrical
survey and multidimensional statistical approach, Engineering Geology, 114 (3–4): 238-250,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2010.05.001.
View publication stats

8 INGEO 2020

MALET, Jean-Philippe et al. 2013. Continuous Monitoring and Near-Real Time Processing
of GPS Observations for Landslide Analysis: A Methodological Framework. In: Margottini
C., Canuti P., Sassa K. (eds) Landslide Science and Practice. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
RAUCOULES, Daniel et al. 2013. Time-variable 3D ground displacements from High-
Resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Application to La Valette landslide (South
French Alps). Remote Sens. Environ. 139, 198–204.
ROUILLON, H., (2020). Analyse de champs de déplacements d’instabilités gravitaires par
tachéométrie automatisée (in French). Technical and Research Project, Department of
Surveying Engineering. INSA Strasbourg, France, 50 pp.
RÜEGER, J. M. (1990) Electronic Distance Measurement. 3rd. Ed. Heidelberg: Springer-
Verlag, 266 pp. ISBN 3-540-51523-2.
SAMYN, Kévin et al. 2012. Characterization of a landslide geometry using 3D seismic
refraction traveltime tomography: The La Valette landslide case history, Journal of Applied
Geophysics, 86: 120-132, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jappgeo.2012.07.014.
SCHÖGEL, Romy et al. 2015. Landslide deformation monitoring with ALOS/PALSAR
imagery: A D-InSAR geormorphological interpretation method. Geomorphology, 31: 314-
330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.11.031
SQUARZONI, Cristina et al. 2003. Nine years of spatial and temporal evolution of the La
Valette landslide observed by SAR interferometry, Engineering Geology, 68 (1–2): 53-66,
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0013-7952(02)00198-9.
SQUARZONI, Cristina et al. 2005. Differential single-frequency GPS monitoring of the La
Valette landslide (French Alps), Engineering Geology, 79 (3–4): 215-229,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2005.01.015.
TORGE, W. & J., MÜLLER (2001). Geodesy. De Gruyter 4th edition. 435 pages.
TRAVELLETTI, Julien et al. 2013. Control of landslide retrogression by discontinuities:
evidence by the integration of airborne-and ground-based geophysical information.
Landslides, 10 (1) (2013), pp. 37-54
VIETMEIER, Jan et al. 1999. Monitoring moderate slope movements (landslides) in the
southern French Alps using differential SAR interferometry. Fringe 1999.