Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc
Mar 14, 2022
With just a few weeks left in California’s “Wet Season”, measuring the snowpack and the water it contains is closely monitored. The amount is critical in dealing with the state’s drought and California’s water resources. About 30% of the water California uses comes from mountain snowmelt.
The California Department of Water Resources relies on about 125 electronic sensors around the state to measure snowpack, but now newer technology is coming into play to help complete the picture.
This past week the Airborne Snow Observatory (a lidar camera equipped King Air 90) has been based out of your Truckee Tahoe Airport as it conducts snow surveys in the Northern Sierra. The plane flies back and forth on a grid, getting snow-coverage data every 3 square meters. “The Airborne Snow Observatory is an aircraft that has a scanning lidar and an imaging spectrometer on board, and from 23,000 feet flying overhead, we can measure the snow depth to within about 2 1/2 inches. From 23,000 feet! still blows me away and I’ve been doing this for over a decade now,” said Thomas Painter, CEO and founder of Airborne Snow Observatories, Inc. (Ramp photos by: Marc Lamb). Thanks to Greyson and ASO's flight.crew.
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