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Vuyovich: NASA SnowEx is a is a multi-year\h
field campaign to test a number of different\h\h

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remote sensing technologies that might get\h
launched from space or in preparation for\h\h

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some planned satellites. In past years we've had\h
you know a lot of people from all over the place,\h\h

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even internationally, come together to collect\h
observations and conduct a several week-long\h\h

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campaign. This year we really had to change the\h
design of that, and now we're focusing a lot more\h\h

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on local teams. So we have local research groups\h
who have you know maybe been using a study area\h\h

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for a number of years, continuing to collect\h
observations and following the SnowEx protocol.\h\h

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So at all these sites they're collecting the same\h
observations on the ground, while the different\h\h

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planes fly overhead. One of our sites is in\h
Idaho is being led by Boise State University,\h\h

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and a number of graduate students are going out on\h
a weekly basis to collect observations. Marshall:\h\h

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I think one of the things that makes Boise State\h
really unique in terms of snow research, one of\h\h

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the big ones is how accessible the mountains are.\h
We're only 15 miles from the campus, and so we can\h\h

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get folks into the winter environment relatively\h
easily. Snow impacts both Boise and Idaho because\h\h

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in this part of the world our water supply comes\h
primarily from the seasonal snow cover. About 70\h\h

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of our water each year comes from the snow that\h
falls in the mountains, and that's important\h\h

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both for water resources, for recreation, a lot\h
of people use our river systems, so it's a big\h\h

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part of the economy, for agriculture. And then\h
also for hydropower. And then predicting the\h\h

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amount of snow that we have in the mountains\h
is important for flood forecasting as well.

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Kraft: We are digging a snow pit. So we\h
dig one in the open and one in the forest,\h\h

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and within the snow pit we measure\h
the different layers of the snowpack,\h\h

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and then in each layer we look\h
at the snow crystal types,\h\h

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as well as the size of the snow crystals.\h
And then we measure the density of the snow\h\h

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and measure the liquid water content. So we're\h
looking at how much water is in the snowpack.

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Marshall: So a lidar system measures the\h
height of the snow, and this specific system\h\h

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we're working with Silverhawk Aviation out of\h
Caldwell, and it's allowing us to very quickly\h\h

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integrate that instrument and then fly on about\h
24 hours’ notice. What we're really finding is\h\h

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that the solution to the snow problem is going to\h
require field measurements like we're doing today,\h\h

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remote sensing like the helicopter that flew\h
over today and the satellites that are timed\h\h

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to overpass our site, and combining the models,\h
the remote sensing and the ground measurements.\h\h

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All three of those pieces are very critical. Snow\h
is a relatively new science and so a lot of the\h\h

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problems that we tackle are questions that that a\h
lot of people haven't actually looked at before.\h\h

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And what that means for I think students is that\h
it's much easier to make an impact than in some\h\h

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of these other fields that have been studied\h
for hundreds and hundreds of years. Vuyovich:\h\h

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NASA’s interest in in studying snow, there are a\h
number of different objectives. So you know from\h\h

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the water resources side, snow is in incredibly\h
important. And in the western United States,\h\h

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a lot of the water resources come from snow. In\h
other areas, it's hydropower. It provides some\h\h

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infiltration into the soil, so for agriculture. It\h
also feeds into some climate change questions. How\h\h