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laughs

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I didn't think I was tired but I think

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yeah Frozen granola

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I'm Carrie voyevich I'm a research

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scientist at Nasa Goddard I'm a project

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scientist for NASA snowx 2023 we're here

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in Alaska in Fairbanks measuring snow in

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[Music]

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hold on to your breakfast

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we're in creamers field Farmers Loop

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research site right now we have three

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sites here in Fairbanks and then we have

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two sites on the North Slope in the

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tundra

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the goal for snowx is to improve our

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remote sensing capabilities of snow

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different properties of snow in

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different environments and at different

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times of the season

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water is so important to the Western U.S

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and they've had some snow droughts over

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the past decade and so understanding how

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much water is stored in the snow is

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super important right now that means

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either Airborne measurements or sending

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people out to make manual measurements

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which doesn't cover the entire Western

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U.S so what we're hoping is that our

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measurements will help us understand

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what technology could be used on a

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satellite mission that could then

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collect measurements over that entire

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area

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so kind of core measurements take place

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at these the pit locations we take very

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detailed profile measurements of the

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snow in those pits including temperature

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and density liquid water content and

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then around those plots we're taking

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very detailed depth profiles and then

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further out from there we're taking just

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a lot more depth measurements

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all of that is within the flight lines

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of the the radar and the lidar

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observations so that we can connect what

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those observations see with what we

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we're headed to Bonanza Creek

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experimental

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forest and we're gonna do a bunch of pit

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measurements out there and depth

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measurements where we characterize

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snowpack in different locations and that

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will be used for ground Truth for the

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air Airborne flights and instruments

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that we have flying over the same area

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about minus 20 Fahrenheit here right now

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and I'm continuing to put on clothes

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because I just got out of the truck and

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that was pretty warm and I'm changing

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body temperature very quickly

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and I'm with the USDA natural resources

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conservation service we actually are

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tasked with making water supply

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forecasts for the entire Western United

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States we have about 600 different

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watersheds that we model and deliver

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seasonal runoff forecasts for the reason

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why we look at snow density is so that

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if you have a given snowpack five feet

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tall the amount of water when you melt

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it all down could be close to one glass

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full of water or it could be more like

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three gallons we gotta do these

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measurements in the field because even

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though there's a lot of technology that

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allow us to look at it from a satellite

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or a Global Perspective they have

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various ranges of accuracy and so doing

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it in the field is one of the most

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at this site we measure that snow water

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equivalent so the snow water equivalence

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is the amount of snow you have in one

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spot if you melted it into water so it's

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the snow water equivalent and that's the

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the fundamental Holy Grail parameter

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that we're after if we knew how much

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water was spatially distributed over the

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entire planet that would allow us to

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forecast spring runoff much better

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all right water resources are just so

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critical especially out west

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and I think it's really cool to try to

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do the science to figure out how much

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water we have looking at the snow depths

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or the height of the snow from the

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ground I'm putting my ruler in the same

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spot we took the other measurement so

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that we can have two data sets and I

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also then look up and note if we have

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canopy

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um kind of covering the surface we're

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intercepting the surface because that's

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an important note for our pilots who are

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looking over and trying to measure the

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the part of snow eggs we are conducting

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these Airborne experiments collecting

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activate path to microwave radar later

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and we are only one part of the tall

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effort you see the uh lines on the down

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below lots of lines I think that's

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essentially the handiwork of the ground

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crew

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and to validate measurements First

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my name is betsu I'm from Mr God at

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space flight center I am the pi for the

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swissar instrument it's called snow

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watery coolant synthetic aperture radar

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radiometer it's very similar to have a

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batch transmits sounds waves as it's

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flying around and then listens to The

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Echoes trying to make sense of the world

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the three-dimensional world around it we

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do the same thing with just the

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microwave so our waves travel at the

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speed of light they come back to the

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antenna we collect them and we process

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those Echoes to make sense of the 3D

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World

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it is in conjunction with the grounds

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measurements that the field teams are

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doing they're digging snow pits and

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collecting other snow observations for

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this to validate what this radar and

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we are walking to our snow pits and the

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tower radar instruments it's super cool

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the surface temperature was minus 34 35

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Celsius this morning I'm so cool to say

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foreign

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the radar sensor and so we'll compare

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this with the ongoing flights of this

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campaign the sensor is particularly

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suitable for deep snow or some of the

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other techniques are likely much more

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suitable for shallow snow so this is

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very complementary

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so this will take half an hour to finish

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so we do four of those transects so this

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takes two hours so they want to test

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instruments and all these different snow

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environments to make sure that they work

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globally

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Alaska offers a perfect snow to do this

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type of test we have arboreal forest and

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Arctic Thunder is very different it's

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generally shallow but it's much harder a

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lot of wind blown features and the

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variability is amazing so it was a very

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different types of snow and it's

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important to see that the

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instruments for remote sensing

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measurement of snow they do work well in

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in this differential environments it is

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a massive effort in terms of like

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Community participation we would never

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have all these measurements on the

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ground if our crews were smaller so the

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fact that we can get so many people in

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one place to take measurements is really

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the team has become really close it so

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it takes a lot of camaraderie and a lot

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of people pitching in you cannot stand

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on your heels and watch what's going on

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out here everybody has to pitch in and

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[Music]

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working out in these conditions is is

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just physically demanding it's super

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cold here in the Boreal forest

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snow was very light and fluffy and we

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were trumping around in the woods on

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snowshoes I mean really in the woods off

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Trail and it was just very physically

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I am amazed at how how much data was

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collected you are an incredible group of

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people

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this was this was super

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[Music]

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just a super opportunity and a really

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great experience to be part of so I

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appreciate all of the hard work and it

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was not easy I heard somebody say like

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wow you guys work really hard for this

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um

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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[Music]