A company spun out of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory began survey flights over the Uinta Mountains this year. Water managers are already using the data to manage Colorado River water wisely. Read the full article here »
Here & Now’s Scott Tong speaks with snow scientist Thomas Painter, whose company is using lasers to measure and track one the biggest-ever snow packs in the Sierra Nevada mountains, and Island District community leader Tony Oliveira, whose neighbors are nervously watching the snow melt because water has already flooded 50 miles of farmland in the San Joaquin Valley.
30 back-to-back atmospheric rivers flipped the threat from historic drought to historic flood risk in California as the state’s snowpack begins to melt. NBC News’ Steve Patterson has more details on potential trouble for low-lying communities.
MAMMOTH LAKES — Flying thousands of feet above the Sierra Nevada in a plane equipped with specialized imaging devices, Elizabeth Carey has been scanning the mountains with lasers to precisely map the snow. The snow blanketing the Sierra lies so deep that the mountain range looks surprisingly swollen and “puffy,” said Carey, who leads the flights as part of a state-funded program. “The amount of water that we have in the snowpack this year is just mind-blowing,” she said. “It’s just been extraordinary.”
The technique offers highly accurate data, but creating a statewide, sustained program could be a challenge. Read the full article here »
Data from flight surveys can offer better runoff predictions during drought, climate change. Read the full article here »
Water districts in Colorado are using lidar instruments to measure snowpack by airplane. Read the full article here »
(Mammoth Lakes, California) Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc. has just taken delivery of one of the first in North America cutting-edge RIEGL VQ-1560 II-S airborne laser scanners, just as the ASO program at NASA pioneered the use of the first of RIEGL’s dual laser scanner, the LMS-Q1560 in 2013. This new LiDAR system, with its doubled…