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Neumann: SnowEx, of course, is an intensive

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airborne and ground-based campaign to characterize the seasonal snowpack all

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over the western U.S., in Colorado and Idaho

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and California and other places. These figures show ICESat-2 data over

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the same locations where SnowEx was studying the snowpack

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in detail. Now each one of those dots in the figure represents a 

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photon that ICESat-2 measured. And for each one of those photons, we have

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the latitude, the longitude and the height. Now the bright

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line you see across the middle of the figure is composed of thousands and thousands

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and thousands of photons, and each of those are individual elevation measurements.

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By comparing measurements of the elevation of the bare ground

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surface during summer or fall with the snow-covered

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surface, we can take a difference in those elevations and figure out what the snow

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depth is. Scientists will be able to compare the elevations

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measured by ICESat-2 from these photon clouds with the intensive

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ground-based, airborne and other field campaigns from SnowEx to determine

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the extent to which ICESat-2 can add to our understanding of snow depth 

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worldwide.
Vuyovich: Snow is a really part of our planet.

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It provides water, hydropower, it’s a water source

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for agriculture and water supply. It also is an important

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part of our energy feedback and helps cool the planet.

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So understanding how much snow is on the ground, where it’s distributed and

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what those characteristics are is really important.

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