ASO conducted a successful survey of the Lakes Basin near Mammoth Lakes, CA on 9 March.  This marks the first snow survey of 2019.

ASO completed flights in Klamath National Forest and Shasta Trinity National Forest last week for a partnership effort with the US Forest Service.

ASO completed surveys of the Lake Tahoe basin last week in partnership with the US Forest Service. 

Tom Painter, ASO Principal Investigator, was awarded the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for the development of the NASA Airborne Snow Observatory, a pioneering platform with unprecedented high resolution measurements of snowpack height and snow water equivalent.

ASO is currently surveying Plumas National Forest, Lake Tahoe Basin, and portions of Klamath National Forest and Shasta-Trinity National Forest in partnership with the US Forest Service.

ASO is currently surveying portions of the Klamath National Forest, Shasta-Trinity National Forest, Plumas National Forest, and Lake Tahoe Basin in partnership with the US Forest Service.

ASO completed April 2018 California snow surveys in the San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Merced, and Kings river basins last week.  The ASO team delivered data products for San Joaquin and Tuolumne within one week of completing data acquisition for each basin.  The snow depth, snow albedo, and snow water equivalent data from these surveys will be used by California Department of Water Resources and local water agencies to make key water supply decisions for the remainder of the year.

The Airborne Snow Observatory completed a survey mission 30 March to 1 April to measure water content of snowpack in the Gunnison River basin in southern Colorado.  This data will be used by Colorado water resource managers to optimize storage and distribution of water for the upcoming summer months.

View of the Gunnison Basin from the ASO airplane just south of Aspen, CO

ASO continued snow-off surveys of the Feather watershed and American watershed last week.  Sub-basins surveyed in the South Fork of the American basin include Ice House, Union Valley, and Loon Lake.  Sub-basins surveyed in the North Fork of the American basin include French Meadows and Hell Hole reservoir.

ASO began a snow-off survey of the Feather river watershed in partnership with the CA Department of Water Resources last week.   The Feather river watershed encompasses 3,500 square miles of land and flows into Lake Oroville formed by Oroville Dam.

After one of the biggest recorded snowpacks in California history, ASO finally completed its 2017 snow survey season in cooperation with the California Department of Water Resources last weekend.  The ASO compute and science team is finishing the data processing and analysis of the August snow surveys; final deliveries are expected to be made by early September.