Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies

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Our Mission

The Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies enhances the interdisciplinary investigation of the snow system's behavior and role in human/environment relationships by offering resources -- people, information, and facilities -- for field-based research and education.

CSAS-Assisted Scholarly Publications

Painter, T. H., J. Deems, J. Belnap, A. Hamlet, C. C. Landry, and B. Udall (2010), Response of Colorado River runoff to dust radiative forcing in snow, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, in press.

Lawrence, C. R., T. H. Painter, C. C. Landry, and J. C. Neff (2010), Contemporary geochemical composition and flux of aeolian dust to the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, United States, J. Geophys. Res., 115, G03007, doi:10.1029/2009JG001077.

Steltzer, H., C, Landry, T. H. Painter, J. Anderson, and E. Ayres. 2009.Biological consequences of earlier snowmelt from desert dust deposition in alpine landscapes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106:  11629-11634, doi_10.1073_pnas.0900758106.

Neff, J.C., A.P. Ballantyne, G.L. Farmer, N.M. Mahowald, J.L. Conroy, C.C. Landry, J.T. Overpeck, T.H. Painter, C.R. Lawrence and R.L. Reynolds. 2008.  Increasing eolian dust deposition in the western United States linked to human activity, Nature Geoscience, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 189-195, March 2008, doi: 10.1038/ngeo136

Painter, T. H.,  A. P. Barrett, C. C. Landry, J. C. Neff, M. P. Cassidy, C. R. Lawrence, K. P. Thatcher, L. Farmer. (2007) Impact of disturbed desert soils on duration of mountain snow cover. Geophysical Research Letters. V34, 12, L12502, 10.1029/2007GL030208.

Painter, T. H., N. Molotch, M. Cassidy, M. Flanner, and K. Steffen, Contact spectroscopy for the determination of stratigraphy of snow grain size, Journal of Glaciology, 53(180), 121-127.

Student Theses:

  • Ann Bryant, PhD, Radiative forcing by desert dust in snowmelt-dominated hydrologic systems from coupled satellite and in situ measurements, Dept of Geography, University of Utah, projected graduation June 2012.

  • Corey P. Lawrence. Aeolian deposition in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, USA: The biogeochemical role of dust in soil development and weathering. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder (PhD, May 2009).

  • Julie A. Crawford. Multi-scale investigations of alpine species of the northern hemisphere. University of Pavia, Italy. (PhD, 2010).

  • S. McKenzie Skiles, MA, Interannual Variability in Radiative Forcing by Desert Dust in Snowcover in the Colorado River Basin, Dept of Geography, University of Utah, projected graduation June 2010.

  • Sarah Castle, M.S. (GEOL). Nutrient cycling in geologically distinct alpine basins in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.  University of Colorado - Boulder,  Geosciences Department. (MS, May 2008).

  • Kathleen McBride. A synoptic climatology of desert dust deposition to the snowpack in the San Juan Mountains, Colorado, U.S.A., Department of Geography, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff (MA, December, 2007).

  • Shane Stradling, An investigation of how dust deposition affects snowpack and snow albedo, Swamp Angel Site, San Juan County, CO, Department of Geosciences, Fort Lewis College, Durango, Colorado (BS, May 2007).

More:
CSAS cover article: Know your snow (featured application). Campbell Scientific Update (2010, Vol. 21, Issue 1).

CSAS's Senator Beck Study Plot Featured on Cover of New Book: Snow and Climate: Physical Processes, Surface Energy Exchange and Modeling by Armstrong and Brun, Cambridge University Press. 2008.

Presentations: