We couldn’t ask for two more perfect days. With brilliant warm sunny days we collected
nearly a thousand snow depth measurements at intensive sites and along
transects that cross the Teller NGEE watershed. As we climbed out of the site
in the helicopter at 8pm, we could see the faint tracks of the tens of
thousands of footsteps along remarkably straight survey lines that form the
Teller snow grid.
Every ten meters along kilometers of transects we collected
snow depth measurements in order to quantify the spatial patterns of snow
distribution in relation to vegetation type, slope, aspect, topography and
elevation. For each transect Bob and Cathy set up a directional bearing using
hand held gps, Lily Cohen (UAF) paced off distance using a three-meter-long
avalanche probe, Cathy measured snow depth with a thaw probe and Bob Busey collected
high resolution position data with the Trimble differential GPS rover.
Given the depth and density of the snow pack we adjusted our
snow density measurement goal from 40 sites to 10, and noticed that within just
two warm days the snowpack had gotten significantly more “rotten” and wet. In the mornings water in the snow pack froze
into icy layers that were difficult to penetrate with the snowpack density tube,
but by the afternoon the snow was so soft we struggled to stay upright,
expending significant effort extracting ourselves from thigh deep postholes,
even though we wore snowshoes or skis. On Saturday we will install two
temporary mini-meteorology stations to track changes in the snow pack and
radiation balance in anticipation of snowmelt, which will start soon if
temperatures continue to stay warm.
