The Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies serves the mountain science community and regional resource managers by hosting & conducting interdisciplinary research and conducting integrative 24/7/365 monitoring that captures weather, snowpack, radiation, soils, plant community and hydrologic signals of regional climate trends.
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Radiative and Hydrologic Impacts of Absorbing Dust Deposits in Alpine Snowfields
This proposed interdisciplinary research project is concerned with the affects on snowpack albedo produced by dust and other 'dirty' layers deposited on the snowpack surface. We will investigate the influence of changes in snowpack albedo on snowmelt during the spring, and the timing and intensity of the hydrologic discharge of alpine basins. The photos above illustrate several such layers found in the snowpack at the proposed sites of the Senator Beck Basin and Swamp Angel Study Plots in early April, 2003. Although faint, four different 'dust' layers had already been deposited at that time, and subsequent winds delivered at least three additional major 'dust events' to the San Juan Mountains during subsequent weeks, visibly staining the still snow-covered mountains red.
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Fieldwork in the Senator Beck Basin is not without its scenic rewards. These photos of Tom Painter, a research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center and the Principal Investigator for the proposed research project, were taken on February 6, 2003, while scouting the eventually-selected Senator Beck Basin Study Plot site. Red Mountain #3 is in the distance, across the Highway 550 corridor and Red Mountain Pass. |
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