Monday November 27, 2023
KNKX —
New tools are allowing scientists to measure snowpack with lasers from space.
“Now we have this capability to measure snow from space. And this is huge,” said University of Washington doctoral candidate Hannah Besso.
Most often, snowpack estimates
Most often, snowpack estimates come from computer models and measurements taken at specific spots, but snow depths vary pretty drastically from one place to another. It’s like skiing across rocks and then minutes later being in knee-deep powder, Besso said.
Besso, the lead author of a new study recently published in the journal “Remote Sensing of the Environment,” analyzed data from a NASA satellite to measure the amount of snowpack in Methow Valley in Washington and the Tuolumne River Basin in Yosemite National Park.