Snow remote sensing has been a 40-year effort, with some successes, but some big challenges remaining. This is not because of lack of effort, but rather because snow remote sensing is hard to do, and because what society needs to know ranges from assessing regional and hemispheric climate impacts of snow to specific basin runoff forecasts for water management. But there are new technologies, and innovative ways of working with older technologies, that are showing great promise today. In addition, data assimilation methods and modeling snow stochastically and physically have come a long way. The time is ripe to galvanize the community, provide a blueprint for action to stakeholders and agencies that is inclusive, comprehensive, and addresses multiple needs, and which can help accelerate the pace of delivering practical snow remote sensing products to a wide range of users. Please think about attending the NASA Snow Remote Sensing Workshop in Boulder CO. August 14–16, a key step in achieving these goals.
For more information contact:
Dr. Matthew Sturm (matthew.sturm [at] gi.alaska.edu)
Dr. Chris Derksen (Chris.Derksen [at] ec.gc.ca)
Dr. Mark Serreze (serreze [at] nsidc.org)
Dr. Jared Entin (jared.k.entin [at] nasa.gov)