SBIR-STTR Award

Accumulated snowpack is a major source of water throughout the United States. Accurately monitoring snow on the northern plains is a significant need for stream flow forecasting and reservoir management. This has been demonstrated by the US Army Corp of Engineers establishment of the Upper Missouri River Basin Plains Snow and Soil Moisture Monitoring Network. The availability of a low-cost snow water equivalent (SWE) measurement system would allow large areas of the northern plains to be adequately sampled in a cost effective way. To address the need for a low-cost SWE measurement system we propose a novel method of measuring snow using a single Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver system. During Phase I the method will be applied to GNSS data previously collected. The key objective of the Phase I research is to determine whether the proposed method results in SWE measurements that are sufficiently accurate to compete with existing technologies. Comparisons will be made between SWE retrieved using the proposed method and existing technologies. Based on results design recommendations for an operational system will be made with the goal of building and testing this system under Phase II.