When you think of NASA, you don’t automatically think about snow. You probably think of space.
But Dorothy Hall, Senior Scientist, says some NASA satellites are actually focused on snow-related missions right now.
Hall says NASA’s satellites look at the earth and measure the atmosphere, the ocean and the land, including snow cover.
Hall says the research generated from these missions is important because about 1/6 of the population relies on water resources from snow melt.
Additionally, she says about 50% of the produce we eat comes from crops grown in the central valley of California that is largely irrigated by snow melt runoff coming fro the Sierra Nevada mountains.
"Ultimately, what we want to be able to do is to be able to measure the extent of the snow (where it is) but also the depth of the snow and the water content because that’s what’s really important. When the snow melts, how much water is available for irrigation and water resources? And we are developing the technologies now to be able to do that in the future.”
Hall says the amount of snow covering the earth is highly variable and changes daily. She says in 2015, the Sierra Nevadas’ snow pack was 25% of normal.
This year, they are at 180% of normal. Hall explains it’s the most snow they’ve seen there in about 20 years.
More information is available at Snow.NASA.gov.