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SnowEx is a field and airborne campaign
sponsored by the Terrestrial Hydrology

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Program to test different remote sensing
instruments in different snow conditions.

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For NASA's SnowEx, we're going to Alaska
this year.

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We've done some work
in the western U.S.

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looking at mountain snowpack.

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This is an opportunity
to test different instruments

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in the boreal forest
and tundra environments.

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The sites that we've selected
are really representative

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of these larger biomes that are throughout
the northern latitudes.

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And Alaska really offers
a great testbed area to do that.

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There are, you know,

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some of the world's greatest researchers
already working up there studying snow.

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So to be able to go up there, partner
with them, use research sites

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that have long heritage of snow
research is a real opportunity for SnowEx.

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We'll have people on the ground,
about 40 people on the ground visiting

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each of these five sites every day,
collecting measurements on snowpack

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profiles,
snow depth, SWE, or snow water equivalent.

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At the same time, we'll have in
March, we'll have two aircraft flying.

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One will be flying SWESARR,
which is an active-passive

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microwave instrument
that was developed at Goddard.

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And the other plane will be flying
a lidar and a stereo imager.

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And in April, we have

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another campaign to look at snow albedo.

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This is the final year of the SnowEx
campaign.

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It’s a little bittersweet because,
you know, it's just been great

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working with the community,
collecting all this data.

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Open science
has been a huge aspect of SnowEx

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and hack weeks that we've had,
and that will continue to live on.

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But I think this is
just the starting point.

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You know,

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hopefully this will be a stepping stone
that will lead us to a satellite mission.

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Currently, there isn't a spaceborne
mission that's dedicated to global

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snowmass.

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The goal of SnowEx
has been to prepare the community for

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a spaceborne opportunity.