This project addresses deficiencies in current snow monitoring through a combination of emerging snow observation technologies (unmanned aerial vehicle gamma snow water equivalent and lidar, plus…

This Cooperative Agreement award from the Bureau of Reclamation under the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program (CFDA 15.078) provides $1,224,810.85 to Montana State University to address deficiencies in current snow monitoring through the deployment of emerging snow observation technologies. The project aims to enhance spatial characterization of snow cover using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gamma-ray and LiDAR measurements, coupled with ground-based cosmic ray and gamma-ray snow water equivalent sensors. The data from these advanced snow monitoring techniques will be assimilated into a snow-runoff modeling framework to quantify improvements in water supply forecasting, with a focus on the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Watershed and the Upper Missouri Basin. The project period runs from February 2024 to September 2026.

The award includes two federal grant sub-awards totaling $330,000 to Texas State University and Syracuse University. These sub-awards are also focused on developing and deploying the emerging UAV gamma-ray and LiDAR snow observation capabilities to enhance water supply modeling in the Missouri Headwaters region.

This project addresses deficiencies in current snow monitoring through a combination of emerging snow observation technologies (unmanned aerial vehicle gamma snow water equivalent and lidar, plus paired ground-based cosmic RAY and gamma snow water equivalent) for spatiotemporal characterization of snow in various forest structures and topographies. The additional spatial extent and resolution from the unmanned aerial vehicle build on conventional snow surveys, and our ground-based methods augment snow pillows. Data from these emerging snow observations will be assimilated into a coupled snow-runoff modeling framework to quantify improvements in water supply forecasting as compared to using only existing snow observation networks. This snow monitoring and water supply forecasting in this project will be deployed in the tenderfoot creek experimental watershed and extrapolated to the upper missouri basin.