Recent developments with the Community Snow Observation Project – from conception to operational modeling

The Community Snow Observations (CSO) project crowd-sources snow depth information from backcountry recreationists and professionals in mountain environments. These individuals frequently traverse steep areas of complex terrain that are under-sampled by existing snow data networks such as the SNOTEL network in the USA. The CSO project then assimilates these data into high-resolution models of snowpack distribution and evolution in these areas, and returns model results to project participants in near-real time. Our modeling work has shown that assimilating crowd-sourced snow depth information improves our models beyond what can be achieved assimilating SNOTEL data alone. Here, we review aspects of model performance and review recent project developments, which include the use of forecast weather data and the production of new mobile apps for the visualization and exploration of the model results.

Citation

Hill, D.F., Aragon, C.M., Wolken, G.J., Wikstrom Jones, K., Crumley, R.L., Arendt, A.A., and Mayorga, E.. 2023. Recent developments with the Community Snow Observation Project – from conception to operational modeling. International Snow Science Workshop Proceedings. 687 – 694. DOI: http://arc.lib.montana.edu/snow-science/item/2951.