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Patriotic Articles |
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In The Field With Women Of
NASA SnowEx “Watch me,” I say to Megan as I tip my skis over the edge of snow at the top of a steep gully in the southern portion of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. She nods knowingly from the ridge above. Not letting her eyes leave me, she watches as I quickly pop off my skis and get my shovel out of my backpack to dig a snow pit.
Though this pit is smaller than the snow pit we dug the previous day at the Banner Summit weather station and radar site, it gives us a similar glimpse at the structure of the layered snow under our feet. After a quick test to assess the strength and stability of the snowpack as well as look at the overall structure of the top meter of snow, I determine the snow looks stable (which means the risk of avalanche is low) and we start our ski descent down the narrow snow gully. The intersection between scientists who study snow and those who are fascinated with mountaineering and avalanches is an interesting one, to say the least. Like many other Earth sciences, we must venture out into the element of study and observe it carefully and with a curious mind to start to understand the complex dynamics by which it operates. And though the snow-centric field of cryosphere science is infinitely interesting, it is an intimidating path to choose. Women in cryosphere sciences – whether on the path of data scientist, glacier researcher, or avalanche forecaster – are few and far between. I met like-minded women like Megan Mason and Isis Brangers when I joined HP Marshall’s Cryosphere Geophysics and Remote Sensing group (CryoGARS) at Boise State University and the NASA SnowEx 2020-2021 campaign he led as co-project scientist. Isis is currently finishing her Ph. D. with the CryoGARS group and previously worked on a project studying snow depth over the European Alps with the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellite. Megan is currently a research scientist for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.
SnowEx campaigns utilize traditional snowpit observation techniques
alongside techniques aimed at being able to monitor and infer
properties about the snow from afar. These include Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles (UAVs), light detection and ranging (LiDAR),
SnowMicroPenetrometry (SMP), liquid water content sensors,
ground-penetrating radar, and airborne inferometric synthetic
aperture radar (InSAR). Large hydrology-focused projects like SnowEx can directly benefit the snow and avalanche community, and subsequently many economies across the mountain west. This is where the intersection between backcountry skier and snow scientist occurs. Mapping SWE throughout a mountain range in real-time would shift the entire landscape of forecasting for both snow hazard and spring water run-off monitoring. Currently,
these monitoring efforts are based on using index sites such as
Snowpack Telemetry sites, or SNOTELs, combined with historical
knowledge and experience, to help extrapolate how much water the
snowpack holds. Even with current technology, precipitation
estimates are relatively unreliable in some places and can be highly
uncertain in both amount and type of precipitation. With remote
sensing technologies like those being tested with SnowEx, and the
women behind the scenes working to improve these technologies, we
can fill that gap. Research
like the NASA SnowEx campaign is key in developing new tools to
observe these environmental changes. Our efforts to synthesize and
utilize new and non-traditional tools as well as offer a diverse and
supportive workplace can help us better understand the past and the
changing future. |
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