New Hampshire NASA EPSCoR
Current Project
Passive Microwave Detection of Snowmelt and Runoff
This project uses current and historical microwave measurements gathered via satellite to predict when and where flooding caused by snowmelt will occur nationwide.
Remote sensing data shows abrupt transitions that occur when the water content of snow increases, indicating potential onset of flooding. As the dry snowpack becomes wet, the microwaver temperature becomes brighter.
The example below illustrates a microwave SWE signal before, during, and after a rain on snow event in the Upper Helmand watershed, Afghanistan (from Vuyovich, 2012, UNH M.S. thesis).
Prof. Jennifer Jacobs and Benjamin Winn install automated snow temp. profile array at Hubbard Brook Exp. Forest, winter 2013-14. |
Passive microwave sensors have been successful at identifying spring snowmelt timing with applications to northern latitude ice sheets, continental snow cover, and sea ice. These methods generally rely on rapid increase in temperature brightness when a snowpack becomes wet. More recently, a diurnal amplitude variation (DAV) algorithm was developed, which uses both ascending and descending passes to identify snwomelt thresholds. It has had considerable success in capturing melt patterns and runoff in high latitudes.
Doug Osborne, UNH grad. student, measures snow temperature profiles at Hubbard Brook Exp. Forest, winter 2013-14. |
For the proposed research, we will leverage the DAV approach to examine mid-latitude snowmelt trends during both the winter and spring snwomelt seasons across a broad range of watersheds.
UNH Civil Engineering Professor Jennifer Jacobs will conduct this study in partnership with the Army Corps of Engineers U.S. Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dr. Jacobs is director of the UNH Environmental Research Group.
Funding will support two Ph.D. students at UNH and several undergraduate researchers at UNH and Dartmouth College.
Seacoast Online article, June 25, 2011...
Project Bibliography...