1. Geog 5100, Spring 2013 Advanced Methods In Snow Measurement: Introduction Noah Molotch Co-Instructors: Mike Durand, James McPhee, Adrian Harpold, Gannet Hallar

2. Importance of Snowmelt Runoff Snowfall / Runoff Ratio 1/6 th of the population and 1/4 th of GDP Barnett et al., 2005 - Nature

3. Snowpack Trends: 1950 - 2000 Service, 2004 Percent change in April 1 snow water equivalent Percent change in snowfall to rainfall Knowles et al., 2006 -60% -45 -30 -15 15 30 45 60% -100% -50% 0 50%

4. Uncertainty in Future Climate Snow albedo feedbacks an important source of uncertainty.

5. Outline 1.Motivations 2.Example Ground Campaigns 3.Our Objectives

6. Future Satellite Missions

7. Integrated Framework Things are inferred from satellite – NOT measured. All Models are wrong – some are useful. Data assimilation provides a framework to integrate models and measurements. Need to field measurements to improve both satellite measurements and models.

15. Effect of Vegetation

20. Ground-Based Validation: Snowpack and Microwave Emission 20 -Snowpack attenuates microwave emission from soil. -Attenuation increases with increasing mass and for larger snow grains.

24. Snowpack Model

26. Summary 1.Motivations 2.Example Ground Campaigns 3.Our Objectives