Snow Varies
University
Goals
The goals for the project are 1) intensive field campaigns to collect data over large areas, 2) technology development, and 3) analysis and modeling of snow covered systems. Measurement will initially focus on surface mapping for understanding roughness (e.g., Fassnacht et al., 2014), depth mapping through snow on and snow off surveys, and estimating near surface snowpack properties, such as density, temperature, and crystal morphology.
Issues
More than one billion people (60 million alone in the Western United States) rely on snowmelt for their main water source (Barnett et al., 2005). Better mapping of the distribution of snow would improve water resources forecasting and management. Satellite-derived estimates of snowpack properties are either at a coarse spatial resolution (e.g., daily 25-km snow water equivalent or SWE from SSM/I and AMSR-E) or coarse temporal resolution (e.g., 16-day 30-m snow covered area from Landsat TM). This project collects data over large areas to be used for ground-truthing of current and remote sensing imagery, and for the development of future sensors and snowpack products.
Tools and Methods
Traditional measurement techniques
New sensor technology
Computer modeling
Re-analysis of existing datasets
Desired Majors
Natural Resources
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Prep
Everyone who relies on snowmelt for their main water source.