Download or read book Estimating Snow Water Equivalent from Shallow Snowpack Depth Measurements in the Great Salt Lake Desert Basin written by Lance C. Kovel, P.E. and published by . This book was released on 2013-11-23 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An independent technical study evaluating the use of snowpack depth measurements to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE) of shallow and ephemeral snowpacks in the Great Salt Lake Desert Basin, located in Utah, Nevada, and Idaho. A parameterized bulk snow density model was combined with mean air temperature measurements to predict snow water equivalent in the Great Salt Lake Desert Basin using only snowpack depth measurements and prior 10-day average daily mean air temperatures. The model was developed using historic snowpack data obtained from a limited number of automated snowpack telemetry (SNOTEL) and weather stations within and near the Basin. Model results from lower-elevation, shallow and ephemeral snowpacks may be used to supplement data obtained from existing SNOTEL stations, sparsely located in the higher elevations of the Basin, to create a more-complete and accurate prediction of the Basin’s snow water equivalent, which may be used to better-manage the water demands of the Basin’s surrounding populations.
Download or read book Estimating Water Equivalent Snow Depth from Related Meteorological Variables written by Louis T. Steyaert and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Frequency of Maximum Water Equivalent of March Snow Cover in North Central United States written by United States. Weather Bureau and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report was prepared to provide generalized information for planning and design purposes in connection with Soil Conservation Service watershed protection and flood prevention programs.
Download or read book Estimating the Spatial Distribution of Snow Water Equivalent in the World s Mountains written by Robert E. Davis and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 14 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Estimating the spatial distribution of snow water equivalent (SWE) in mountainous terrain is currently the most important unsolved problem in snow hydrology. Several methods can estimate the amount of snow throughout a mountain range: (1) Spatial interpolation from surface sensors constrained by remotely sensed snow extent provides a consistent answer, with uncertainty related to extrapolation to unrepresented locations. (2) The remotely sensed date of disappearance of snow is combined with a melt calculation to reconstruct the SWE back to the last significant snowfall. (3) Passive microwave sensors offer real‐time global SWE estimates but suffer from several problems like subpixel variability in the mountains. (4) A numerical model combined with assimilated surface observations produces SWE at 1‐km resolution at continental scales, but depends heavily on a surface network. (5) New methods continue to be explored, for example, airborne LiDAR altimetry provides direct measurements of snow depth, which are combined with modelled snow density to estimate SWE. While the problem is aggressively addressed, the right answer remains elusive. Good characterization of the snow is necessary to make informed choices about water resources and adaptation to climate change and variability. WIREs Water 2016, 3:461–474. doi: 10.1002/wat2.1140
Download or read book Validating Reconstruction of Snow Water Equivalent in California s Sierra Nevada Using Measurements from the NASAAirborne Snow Observatory written by Robert E. Davis and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accurately estimating basin‐wide snow water equivalent (SWE) is the most important unsolved problem in mountain hydrology. Models that rely on remotely sensed inputs are especially needed in ranges with few surface measurements. The NASA Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) provides estimates of SWE at 50 m spatial resolution in several basins across the Western U.S. during the melt season. Primarily, water managers use this information to forecast snowmelt runoff into reservoirs; another impactful use of ASO measurements lies in validating and improving satellite‐based snow estimates or models that can scale to whole mountain ranges, even those without ground‐based measurements. We compare ASO measurements from 2013 to 2015 to four methods that estimate spatially distributed SWE: two versions of a SWE reconstruction method, spatial interpolation from snow pillows and courses, and NOAA's Snow Data Assimilation System (SNODAS). SWE reconstruction downscales energy forcings to compute potential melt, then multiplies those values by satellite‐derived estimates of fractional snow‐covered area to calculate snowmelt. The snowpack is then built in reverse from the date the snow is observed to disappear. The two SWE reconstruction models tested include one that employs an energy balance calculation of snowmelt, and one that combines net radiation and degree‐day approaches to estimate melt. Our full energy balance model, without ground observations, performed slightly better than spatial interpolation from snow pillows, having no systematic bias and 26% mean absolute error when compared to SWE from ASO. Both reconstruction models and interpolation were more accurate than SNODAS.
Download or read book Estimation of Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Using Passive Microwave Radiation Data written by Andrew Tait and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Correlation and Prediction of Snow Water Equivalent from Snow Sensors written by Bruce J. McGurk and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since 1982, under an agreement between the California Department of Water Resources and the USDA Forest Service, snow sensors have been installed and operated in Forest Service-administered wilderness areas in the Sierra Nevada of California. The sensors are to be removed by 2005 because of the premise that sufficient data will have been collected to allow "correlation" and, by implication, prediction of wilderness snow data by nonwilderness sensors that are typically at a lower elevation. Because analysis of snow water equivalent (SWE) data from these wilderness sensors would not be possible until just before they are due to be removed, "surrogate pairs" of high- and low-elevation snow sensors were selected to determine whether correlation and prediction might be achieved. Surrogate pairs of sensors with between 5 and 15 years of concurrent data were selected, and correlation and regression were used to examine the statistical feasibility of SWE prediction after "removal" of the wilderness sensors. Of the 10 pairs analyzed, two pairs achieved a correlation coefficient of 0.95 or greater. Four more had a correlation of 0.94 for the accumulation period after the snow season was split into accumulation and melt periods. Standard errors of estimate for the better fits ranged from 15 to 25 percent of the mean April 1 snow water equivalent at the high-elevation sensor. With the best sensor pairs, standard errors of 10 percent were achieved. If this prediction error is acceptable to water supply forecasters, sensor operation through 2005 in the wilderness may produce predictive relationships that are useful after the wilderness sensors are removed
Download or read book Determination of Snow Depth and Water Equivalent by Remote Sensing written by Harold W. Steinhoff and published by . This book was released on 1978 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Estimated Inflow and Evaporation for Great Salt Lake Utah 1931 76 with Revised Model for Evaluating the Effects of Dikes on the Water and Salt Balance of the Lake written by Kidd M. Waddell and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Comparison Method Between Gridded and Simulated Snow Water Equivalent Estimates to In situ Snow Sensor Readings written by Angelique Marie Fabbiani-Leon and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Snow Surveys Section has recently explored the potential use of recently developed hydrologic models to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE) for the Sierra Nevada mountain range. DWR Snow Surveys Section's initial step is to determine how well these hydrologic models compare to the trusted regression equations, currently used by DWR Snow Surveys Section. A comparison scheme was ultimately developed between estimation measures for SWE by interpreting model results for the Feather River Basin from: a) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) gridded SWE reconstruction product, b) United States Geological Survey (USGS) Precipitation-Runoff Modeling System (PRMS), and c) DWR Snow Surveys Section regression equations. Daily SWE estimates were extracted from gridded results by computing an average SWE based on 1,000 ft elevation band increments from 3,000 to 10,000 ft (i.e. an elevation band would be from 3,000 to 4,000 ft). The dates used for processing average SWE estimates were cloud-free satellite image dates during snow ablation months, March to August, for years 2000-2012. The average SWE for each elevation band was linearly interpolated for each snow sensor elevation. The model SWE estimates were then compared to the snow sensor readings used to produce the snow index in DWR's regression equations. In addition to comparing JPL's SWE estimate to snow sensor readings, PRMS SWE variable for select hydrologic response units (HRU) were also compared to snow sensor readings. Research concluded with the application of statistical methods to determine the reliability in the JPL products and PRMS simulated SWE variable, with results varying depending on time duration being analyzed and elevation range.
Download or read book Accuracy of Field Snow Surveys Western United States Including Alaska written by United States. Soil Conservation Service and published by . This book was released on 1965 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Snow Depth and Snow Water Equivalent Estimation in Finland Using QuikSCAT written by Javier Minguez Bernal and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Direct Insertion of NASA Airborne Snow Observatory Derived Snow Depth Time Series Into the ISnobal Energy Balance Snow Model written by Hans-Peter Marshall and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 19 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plain Language Summary: In regions that depend primarily on snow to support life, water availability is becoming an increasingly important topic. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) is a new platform for estimating the amount of water stored in mountain snowpacks. Since 2013, the ASO has combined detailed measurements of snow depth from an aircraft with snowpack density estimates from a physics‐based snow model to provide predictions of total snow water equivalent stored in the Tuolumne River Basin in the California Sierra Nevada. This work describes the process of updating the snow model using the measured ASO snow depths through a direct insertion process. When the distribution of all the snow in the basin is known more accurately, the model results are improved.
Download or read book Snow Cover Measurements and Areal Assessment of Precipitation and Soil Moisture written by Boris Sevruk and published by World Meteorological Organization. This book was released on 1992 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Water Supply Outlook for Washington and Federal state private Cooperative Snow Surveys written by United States. Soil Conservation Service and published by . This book was released on 1965-03 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Estimating Snow Water Resources from Space written by Dongyue Li and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improving the estimation of snow water equivalent (SWE) in the Sierra Nevada is critical for the water resources management in California. In this study, we carried out an experiment to estimate SWE in the Upper Kern Basin, Sierra Nevada, by assimilating AMSR-E observed brightness temperatures (Tb) into a coupled hydrology and radiative transfer model using an ensemble Kalman batch reanalysis. The data assimilation framework merges the complementary SWE information from modeling and observations to improve SWE estimates. The novelty of this assimilation study is that both the modeling and the radiance data processing were specifically improved to provide more information about SWE. With the enhanced SWE signals in both simulations and observations, the batch reanalysis stands a better chance of successfully improving the SWE estimates. The modeling was at a very high resolution (90m) and spanned a range of mountain environmental factors to better characterize the effects of the mountain environment on snow distribution and radiance emission. We have developed a dynamic snow grain size module to improve the radiance modeling during the intense snowfall events. The AMSR-E 37GHz V-pol observed Tb was processed at its native footprint resolution at ~100 square km. In the batch assimilation, the model predicted the prior SWE and Tb; the prior estimate of an entire year was then updated by the dry-season observations at one time. One advantage of this is that the prior SWE of a certain period is updated using the observations both before and after this period, which takes advantage of the temporally continuous signal of the seasonal snow accumulation in the observations. We found the posterior SWE estimates showed improved accuracy and robustness. During the study period of 2003 to 2008, at point-scale, the average bias of the six-year April 1st SWE was reduced from -0.17 m to -0.02m, the average temporal SWE RMSE of the snow accumulation season decreased by 51.2%. The basin-scale results showed that the April 1st SWE bias reduced from -0.17m to -0.11m, and the temporal SWE RMSE of the accumulation season decreased by 23.6%.
Download or read book A Snow Water Equivalent Reanalysis Approach to Explore Spatial and Temporal Variability of the Sierra Nevada Snowpack written by Manuela Girotto and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 143 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The availability and variability of snowmelt has become a serious concern because of increased water demand, and because of the high degree of uncertainty related to climate variability posing a threat to the magnitude and timing of this precious resource. Understanding the geophysical controls and interannual variability of the spatial patterns of seasonal montane snowpacks are critical for understanding the effects of a warmer climate on the snowpack water storage. To explicitly resolve snow hydrological controls in complex montane environments, it is necessary to provide high resolution spatially and temporally distributed estimates of snow water equivalent, while also taking into consideration the uncertainties in the system. Toward this end, this dissertation developed a retrospective data assimilation technique (SWE reanalysis) that aimed to optimally merge VIS-NIR remote sensing data into a snow prediction model, and at the same time, account for the limitations of measurements, forcings, and model errors. The SWE reanalysis was: first developed and implemented over a small region, in order to investigate the performance of the methods under their nominal scenarios; second implemented for the full Landsat-5 record (27 year) over a regional scale domain in order to test accuracy and gain insight on the spatial and interannual controls on the SWE patterns; third extended to the entire Sierra Nevada in order to benchmark the reanalysis for its application to the full Sierra Nevada and to preliminarly [i.e. preliminarily] understand what are the spatial controls on SWE patterns. The key findings of this dissertation can be summarized as follows: 1) The SWE reanalysis approach provided accurate spatially and continuous estimates of SWE and of its uncertainties due to measurement, forcings, and model errors. 2) The methods were found to be robust to input errors such as biases in solar radiation and precipitation, and robust to the number of available VIS-NIR observations. 3) The application of the methods over the Kern watershed for the full Landsat-5 record suggested that SWE accumulation patterns were in general not interannually consistent and that the interannual variability was dependent on whether a dry or wet year was analyzed. 4) The trend test analysis showed that peak-SWE and day-of-peak have not drastically changed over the analyzed 27 years for the Kern River watershed, but suggested that the lower elevations may be more susceptible to climate variability and change. 5) Elevation was found to be the primary control on spatial patterns of peak-SWE and day-of-peak for the entire Sierra Nevada range; however different patterns were found across the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada depending on their location. Ultimately, the methods can be applied to the full Sierra Nevada and other montane regions over the modern remote sensing record to generate a dataset that should be useful to scientists and practitioners not only in hydrology, but other fields where seasonal snow processes are a key driver such as biogeochemistry, mountain meteorology, and water resource management.
