Fiber-optic detection of snow avalanches using telecommunication infrastructure

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that existing fiber-optic telecommunication cables can be used with Distributed Acoustic Sensing to detect snow avalanches in real-time, offering a cost-effective monitoring solution.

Contribution

The paper shows for the first time that fiber-optic telecommunication infrastructure can reliably detect snow avalanches using DAS technology.

Findings

Snow avalanches produce detectable signals in DAS data.

DAS can identify avalanches even when they do not reach the cable.

The method enables near-real-time avalanche monitoring.

Abstract

We demonstrate the detectability of snow avalanches using Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) with existing fiber-optic telecommunication cables. For this, during winter 2021/2022, we interrogated a 10 km long cable closely following the avalanche prone Fluelapass road in the Swiss Alps. In addition to other signals like traffic and earthquakes, the DAS data contain clear recordings of numerous snow avalanches, even though most of them do not reach the cable. Here we present two examples of snow avalanche recordings that could be verified photographically. Our results open new perspectives for cost-effective, near-real-time avalanche monitoring over long distances using pre-installed fiber-optic infrastructure.