A low-cost snow water equivalent sensor

Project SummaryAccumulated snowpack is a major source of water throughout the United States. Accuratelymonitoring snow on the northern plains is a significant need for streamflow forecasting andreservoir management. This has been demonstrated by the US Army Corp of Engineersestablishment of the Upper Missouri River Basin Plains Snow and Soil Moisture MonitoringNetwork. The availability of a low-cost snow water equivalent (SWE) measurement systemwould allow large areas of the northern plains to be adequately sampled in a cost effective way.To address the need for a low-cost SWE measurement system we propose a novel method ofmeasuring snow using a single Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver system.During Phase I the method will be applied to GNSS data previously collected. The key objectiveof the Phase I research is to determine whether the proposed method results in SWEmeasurements that are sufficiently accurate to compete with existing technologies. Comparisonswill be made between SWE retrieved using the proposed method and existing technologies.Based on results design recommendations for an operational system will be made with the goalof building and testing this system under Phase II.