Denver – Before going to the University of Colorado Boulder and becoming a scientist who studies snow, Jeff Deem fell in love with skiing.
“As a backcountry enthusiasts, we had to imagine what snow models are on the landscape,” he said. “Same challenge that water managers are faced: we have limited data.”
This has changed in recent years, however, thanks in part to the considerable.
Measure the snowy mantle of Colorado Maybe complicated, but it’s crucial – and not only for skiers. Water managers are based on snow -handled measurements to decide how to change the tank levels to optimize the amount of water for customers, as well as those that recreate water bodies.
“The snowpack is our largest reservoir in a seasonal way,” said Deems. “So the more we can keep it on the mountains, the better.”
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The Deems helped transform a research project into a NASA jet propulsion laboratory in co-founding Snow observatories suspended in the air (ASO). The company flies on the mountains in small planes equipped with light and television detection systems (LIDAR) which use lasers to measure the depth of the snowpack.
Flights also use a spectrometer to measure reflection on the snowpack. Debris of trees, dust or soot of forest fires can land on the snowpack and absorb the heat of the sun, which melts snow faster.
“It looks like mowing the lawn, honestly,” said Deems. “If you look at the flight track, the plane goes back and forth, from front to back, riding the field of vision on the ground.”
There are already automated weather stations in the mountains, known as snottel network, which measure the levels of snowpack. However, they can sit for several kilometers and generally do not work above 11,000 feet. ASO technology follows the data that fill these shortcomings.
“We get the full view of the watershed,” said Deems. “Ensures that we are not missing something. We are not surprised by the fact that there is less snow or snow in the watershed than what we expected.
- ASO measured the snowpack at the Berthoud pass in 2023. Compare the levels of April 2023 to those of May 2023 in the cursor below
Deems said the ASO had carried out 20 colorado mountains this year, with 33 local, state and federal partners to finance flights. One of them is Denver Water, who has been using ASO flights since 2019.
“We really made during this first year of flight that it was going to change the total game for the way we think of the water we have at our disposal during a given year,” said Taylor Winchell, leader of the climate adaptation program for Denver Water. “If you have a better estimate of the quantity of water that will really come from the snowpack in your tank, you can make better decisions on the amount of water to be released from this tank in order to capture this snowpack.”
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According to Winchell, A new law adopted by the legislature of the State of Colorado this spring Establish a water supply and water supply program administered by the state that is hosted in Colorado Water Conservation Board, the State Policy Agency. It essentially formalizes technology within the framework of a program managed by the State.
Deems said the change will add surveillance and continuity because more water managers across the state would like to jump on board.
“We are increasing the coverage, duration and sustainability of the program well,” he said.
In turn, the program contributes to making the water from Colorado more durable and the sky is the limit.
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