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Neumann: SnowEx, of course, is an intensive
airborne and ground-based campaign to characterize the seasonal snowpack all
over the western U.S., in Colorado and Idaho
and California and other places. These figures show ICESat-2 data over
the same locations where SnowEx was studying the snowpack
in detail. Now each one of those dots in the figure represents a
photon that ICESat-2 measured. And for each one of those photons, we have
the latitude, the longitude and the height. Now the bright
line you see across the middle of the figure is composed of thousands and thousands
and thousands of photons, and each of those are individual elevation measurements.
By comparing measurements of the elevation of the bare ground
surface during summer or fall with the snow-covered
surface, we can take a difference in those elevations and figure out what the snow
depth is. Scientists will be able to compare the elevations
measured by ICESat-2 from these photon clouds with the intensive
ground-based, airborne and other field campaigns from SnowEx to determine
the extent to which ICESat-2 can add to our understanding of snow depth
worldwide. Vuyovich: Snow is a really part of our planet.
It provides water, hydropower, it’s a water source
for agriculture and water supply. It also is an important
part of our energy feedback and helps cool the planet.
So understanding how much snow is on the ground, where it’s distributed and
what those characteristics are is really important.
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