Mapping watershed snow depth, SWE, and albedo with the NASA JPL Airborne Snow Observatory

Operational hydrologic simulation and forecasting in snowmelt-dominated watersheds currently 
relies on indices of snow accumulation and melt from measurements at a small number of point 
locations or geographically-limited manual surveys.  These data sources cannot adequately 
characterize the spatial distribution of snow depth/water equivalent, and do not measure snow 
albedo, which are primary determinants of snowpack volume and melt rates.

The NASA JPL Airborne Snow Observatory’s airborne combined LiDAR and imaging spectrometer 
system maps snow depth and albedo at high spatial and temporal resolutions, providing an 
unprecedented snowpack monitoring capability and enabling a new operational paradigm.

In 2013 and 2014, the ASO mapped snow depth in the Tuolumne River Basin in California’s 
Yosemite National Park on a nominally weekly basis, and provided fast-turnaround spatial snow 
depth and water equivalent maps to the operators of Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, the water and 
power supply for 2.5 million people on the San Francisco peninsula.  These products enabled 
more accurate runoff simulation and optimal reservoir management in years with very low snow 
accumulation.

This presentation will provide an overview of the ASO motivation and implementation, and show 
some initial results from this new application in operational snow hydrology.