HOURGLASS - Northern Bridger Mountains

The Hourglass project site lies in Wolverine Bowl, where a large, complex-shaped couloir leads down into a small meadow, adjacent to a large, tree-free clearing.

This goal of this study is to better understand how snow dynamics function in complex mountainous terrain and how mountains act as large stores for water resources. Many studies are focused on quantifying snow at lower elevation sites or based on remote sensing techniques that are of a coarse resolution, but the research at this site aims to quantify how much snow is stored in areas with the most seasonal accumulation and ablation and that contribute the greatest to community-level water resource availability.

RIVER ICE - Glendive

This project focuses on monitoring and mapping river ice using imagery from UAVs and satellites. The motivation is to better incorporate ice cover into river forecast models and improve our ability to predict ice jam floods.
Several locations along the Yellowstone River are used as test sites to develop a relationship between UAV-based surface reconstruction models and satellite-based radar measurement.

Ross Palomaki's dissertation project is funded by a NASA FINESST Grant.

Project leads - Ross Palomaki and Eric Sproles

SNOW ALBEDO

This project focused on developing and testing a methodology to measure the albedo (reflectance) of snow across a mountain landscape using a drone. The end goal is to provide a spatially-distibuted mosaic of albedo measurments that can be used to calibrate and validate models and satellite measurements.

Funding for this project was provided by the USGS' National Innovation Center and Montana NASA EPSCoR. The Yellowstone Club and their ski patrol were also amazing partners on this project.

Project leads - Andrew Mullen and Eric Sproles

NASA SnowEx - Prairie Snow

NASA's SnowEx program focuses on addressing the most important gaps in snow remote sensing knowledge. At the Central Agriculture Research Center (CARC) site, we focused on understanding the spatial variability of prairie snow and how we can improve on satellite technology to better capture this and its potential water resources.

It was a a fun, but challenging place to work. Check out the great mini-documentary that was made.

Project lead - Eric Sproles

MSU ROOFTOP SNOW

In March 2019, two flat-roofed recreational gyms of the Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center collapsed. Fortunately no one was hurt. While the accumulated snowpack was above average at that time, these collapses were not expected based on the current understanding of total load capacity. Therefore, our innovative project provides facilities management with accurate snow load and depth measurements on a selection of flat-roofed buildings around campus to complement their existing systems of measuring roof collapse risk.

The project combines UAV-derived measurements of snow depth with automated measurements of snow density.

Project leads - Sam Neitlich and Eric Sproles

REGIÓN DE COQUIMBO CHILE

We still have some projects and collaborations in Northern Central Chile. These have proven hard to keep moving through the pandemic. But we hope to jump start them in the near future. ¡Cruza los dedos!