CUES—a study site for measuring snowpack energy balance in the Sierra Nevada

• Main Authors: Bair, Edward H, Dozier, Jeff, Davis, Robert E, Colee, Michael T, Claffey, Keran J
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 2015
• Subjects: Climate Action; snow; energy balance; snowmelt; radiation; meteorology; Geology; Geophysics; Physical Geography and Environmental Geoscience; Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3g73d538

Accurate measurement and modeling of the snowpack energy balance are critical to understanding the terrestrial water cycle. Most of the water resources in the western US come from snowmelt, yet statistical runoff models that rely on the historical record are becoming less reliable because of a changing climate. For physically based snow melt models that do not depend on past conditions, ground based measurements of the energy balance components are imperative for verification. For this purpose, the US Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) established the “CUES” snow study site (CRREL/UCSB Energy Site, http://www.snow.ucsb.edu/) at 2940m elevation on Mammoth Mountain, California. We describe CUES, provide an overviewof research, share our experience with scientific measurements, and encourage future collaborative research. Snowmeasurements began near the current CUES site for ski area operations in 1969. In the 1970s, researchers began taking scientific measurements. Today, CUES benefits from year round gondola access and a fiber optic internet connection. Data loggers and computers automatically record and store over 100 measurements from more than 50 instruments each minute. CUES is one of only five high altitude mountain sites in the Western US where a full suite of energy balance components are measured. In addition to measuring snow on the ground at multiple locations, extensive radiometric and meteorological measurements are recorded. Some of the more novel measurements include scans by an automated terrestrial LiDAR, passive and active microwave imaging of snow stratigraphy, microscopic imaging of snow grains, snowflake imaging with a multi-angle camera, fluxes fromupward and downward looking radiometers, snowwater equivalent (SWE) from different types of snow pillows, snowmelt from lysimeters, and concentration of impurities in the snowpack. We give an example of terrain-corrected snow albedo measurements ...