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SnowEx 2023

Overview:

The upcoming SnowEx campaign will take place in the tundra and boreal forest regions of Alaska this winter 2022-23.  For this campaign, there will be three distinct measurement periods – one during low-snow conditions in October 2022, one during snow-on conditions in March 2023, and one to capture the melt season in April 2023. Below is the timeline of events scheduled for the campaign: 

timeline

 

The Measurement Strategy: 

Ground-based measurements will be point-based observations and serve as a robust validation data set to compare with the scheduled airborne and overlapping satellite observations. Manual sampling on the ground will include observations of both ground and snow conditions. 

pit and forest

Ground Measurements

     Ground conditions: 

  • Soil moisture
  • Freeze-thaw state
  • TLS - to characterize under/within canopy snow and no-snow conditions

     Snow conditions:

  • Snow pits - selected with input from models, 2022 lidar data
  • Snow depth transects or spirals (magnaprobe, GPR)
  • mini-pits/SMP - variability in stratigraphy
  • SWE tubes - snow density variability
  • Microstructure (SSA, SMP, Casting)

Airborne Measurements

  • Active/passive microwave (SWESARR) during no/low-snow and snow-on conditions
  • Lidar & stereoimagery during no/low-snow and snow-on conditions
  • Hyperspectral (AVIRIS-NG) during melt period at boreal forest sites

Coincident satellite observations

Study Sites:

Diverse boreal (taiga) and Arctic (tundra) sites will provide a span of environmental conditions for the upcoming campaign. Sites were selected based on access, existing instrumentation/infrastructure, long-term meteorological data records, substrate and vegetation characterization, and airborne permission. 

 

sites

 

For a more detailed look at the campaign objectives please refer to this presentation from the spring 2022 Eastern Snow Conference, presented by Carrie Vuyovich: 2023 SnowEx Presentation

SnowEx 2023 Organizing Team: Carrie Vuyovich, Sveta Stuefer, HP Marshall, Mike Durand, Batu Osmanoglu, Kelly Elder, Dragos Vas, Art Gelvin, Batu Osmanoglu, Chris Larsen, Stine Pedersen, Dan Hodkinson, Eli Deeb

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