NASA's snowex campaign: Observing seasonal snow in a forested environment

Abstract

SnowEx is a multi-year airborne snow campaign with the primary goal of addressing the question: How much water is stored in Earth's terrestrial snow-covered regions? Year 1 (2016-17) focused on the distribution of snow-water equivalent (SWE) and the snow energy balance in a forested environment. The year 1 primary site was Grand Mesa and the secondary site was the Senator Beck Basin, both in western, Colorado, USA. Nine sensors on five aircraft made observations using a broad range of sensing techniques-active and passive microwave, and active and passive optical/infrared - to determine the sensitivity and accuracy of these potential satellite remote sensing techniques, along with models, to measure snow under a range of forest conditions. SnowEx also included an extensive range of ground truth measurements - in-situ manual samples, snow pits, ground based remote sensing measurements, and sophisticated new techniques. A detailed description of the data collected will be given and some preliminary results will be presented.