SSOP

1
Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies
Silverton, Colorado
Toward A Snow System Observation Protocol
Network
Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies Mission
Statement The Center for Snow and Avalanche
Studies enhances the interdisciplinary
investigation of the alpine snow system's
behavior and role in human/environment
relationships by offering resources people,
information, and facilities for field-based
research and education. Premise
Statement When viewed holistically, as an Earth
surface system driven by complex interactions
over space and time between the atmosphere,
lithosphere, cryosphere, and anthroposphere,
the alpine snow system requires new insights into
its behavior and crucial role in all mountain
systems. Mountains, via their seasonal snowpacks
and other cryospheric reservoirs, are the "water
towers of the world." In the western United
States, 50-80 of the water supply descends from
the sky in the form of seasonal mountain snows.
Globally, more than a billion people depend on
the snow system for water supplies. Understanding
the seasonal delivery and distribution of
mountain snowcover, the snowpack storage and
release of water, the role of ablation, the
biogeochemical role of the snow system, and the
affects of climate on those processes, are
clearly of increasing importance to the American
West and to snowmelt-watered regions everywhere.
The interannual variability of the snow
resource, and the possibility that climate change
could cause substantial long-term changes in the
distribution of seasonal snow and other
cryospheric reserves of water, require a thorough
analysis of snow's relationship to economies of
regions and enterprises that depend on snow or
its runoff. Further, as settlement in mountain
regions increases, the snow system increasingly
poses hazards such as snow avalanches and
floods to residents, recreationists, travelers,
and human investments. Therefore, the study of
how snow system processes work and change, over
space and time, is fundamental to understanding
how the mountain realm's music of the spheres
influences human/environment relationships, and
to developing effective policies for apportioning
snowmelt resources or coping with winter
hazards. Funding Supporters The Center for
Snow and Avalanche Studies was founded in 2002
with seed money from the American Avalanche
Association, the Janss Family Foundation,
contributions by Friends of the CSAS, Ballantine
Family Charitable Fund, and in-kind donations of
equipment and services. A major US Forest
Service Rural Development, Forestry and
Communities Grant was requested and obtained on
behalf of the CSAS by the Mountain Studies
Institute, our sister organization in mountain
system research and education in Silverton,
Colorado. Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies
PO Box 190 Silverton, CO 81433 (970)
387-5080 www.snowstudies.org Board of
Directors Don Bachman Pres. Bozeman, MT
Arthur Ferguson, Esq. V.P., Aspen, CO Chris
George Sec./Treas. Silverton, CO Prof. Jeff
Dozier UC Santa Barbara Prof. Lee Dexter
Univ. Northern Arizona Executive Director Chris
Landry clandry_at_snowstudies.org
Why A Snow System Observation Network
Mountain systems and their cryospheric elements
are bellwethers of global change. Furthermore,
snow is increasingly recognized as a primary
agent of mountain system dynamics. As both an
index of climate, and a driver of processes, the
mountain snow system requires a new and holistic
approach to understanding its complex role. The
snow system is comprised of interactions between
the earths surface, the atmosphere, the
cryosphere, the mountain hydrosphere, the
biosphere, and mankind and our 'anthroposphere,
which is dependent on, and altering, them all.
Further, among earth surface systems, the
snow/ice mantle is unique. No other such
globally extensive system exists so near to or at
its phase-state 'triple point' or produces such
complex behaviors in response to very small
forcings from its environment. That sensitivity
is increasingly viewed as an important and
observable trait closely linked to the
vulnerability to global change of mountain system
resources and 'services'. Given the
uncertainties surrounding our current
understanding of earth surface and atmospheric
interactions, and the extent to which those
interactions influence change in global systems
upon which human welfare depends, it is
imperative that science capture the behavior of
bellwether earth surface systems using coherent,
sustained, and holistic data collection programs.
And yet, no integrative, interdisciplinary
protocol dedicated to capturing the snow system's
complex interactions and behaviors presently
exists, and, no 'purpose-built' network
implementing such a protocol is in place. The
Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies (CSAS)
proposes to develop a Snow System Observation
Protocol (SSOP) in collaboration with a diverse
and interdisciplinary team of scientists and
practitioners whose work spans the full spectrum
of snow-driven systems and resources. That SSOP
would form the foundation upon which the CSAS's
vision for a North American Snow System
Observation Network (NASSON) could subsequently
be built.
How would a snow system observational protocol,
and the data it generated, contribute to
understanding, monitoring, and managing mountain
system behaviors? What integrative datasets
should a snow system observation protocol capture?
David Inouye, Director - Graduate Program for
Sustainable Development and Conservation Biology,
Univ. of Maryland, College Park how would the
development of an interdisciplinary snow system
observation protocol, which would include
biospheric observations, contribute to research
on alpine ecology and climatology, including the
type of research you've conducted at Gothic,
Colorado for the past 25 years? My research has
shown that variation in winter snowpack depth,
and the subsequent variation in timing of
snowmelt, are primary controlling variables for
phenology of flowering by Rocky Mountain
wildflowers. Variation in abundance of flowering
for some species is also primarily controlled by
snowpack depth during the previous winter
(through physiological mechanisms that have yet
to be discovered). There is also a significant
interaction between snowpack depth (and
subsequent snowmelt date) and the probability of
frost damage to many species of wildflowers. The
pattern of snowfall that characterized the last
few decades is apparently changing in the
Colorado Rocky Mountains (and perhaps more
broadly), in part because of the change of phase
of the North Pacific Oscillation in 1998.
Together with the larger-scale influence of
global climate change, this influence of the NPO
and that of ENSO, mean that this is an opportune
time to be increasing our knowledge of snow
systems. Jill Baron - USGS Fort Collins Science
Center. Which snow-hosted or snow-influenced
biogeochemical processes should a snow system
observation protocol capture in order to support
integrated alpine ecology research? In remote
alpine areas, most of the total annual input of
atmospherically-deposited chemicals can occur as
components of snow. Atmospheric deposition of
chemical compounds such as acids, nutrients,
organochlorines, and metals in snow affect all
components of mountain ecosystems. The loss of
acid-neutralizing capacity in soils from acid
deposition of S and N compounds reduces soil
fertility and organismal diversity, acidifies
waters and alters aquatic species composition.
Nitrogen and base cations additionally act as
fertilizer. This can be a benefit where enhanced
productivity is desired, such as in forests
destined for harvest. Excess N is undesirable in
natural preserves found in many mountainous
areas, due to fertilization-induced changes in
vegetation community composition, nutrient
cycling, and ability of plants to withstand
stress. Nitrogen can alter aquatic food webs and
foster eutrophication. There is a pattern of
biological accumulation of persistent organic
pollutants in animals and foliage at high
altitudes. An SSOP for snow chemistry sample
collection, transport, storage, and analysis
would allow comparison of nutrient, metal, and
pollutant loads across sites. This would both
facilitate understanding of processes influencing
high alpine ecosystems, and help track the degree
to which alpine systems are influenced by human
activities. Bill Simon - Animas River
Stakeholders Group. Which snow parameters should
be monitored to support long-term, basin scale
analyses of mountains as sinks and/or emitters of
atmospherically delivered or indigenous metals
and/or other potential 'contaminants' to water
supplies? Areas of heavy snow accumulation serve
as headwaters of the earths watersheds. The
water released becomes a carrier of the human
chemical legacy as well as providing essential
elements for earths biota. Understanding the
interaction between the deposition, accumulation,
migration, and release of nutrients, trace
metals, and man made organic compounds in the
cryosphere has become necessary to understand
ecosystem processes and assess the risks to life
on our planet from atmospheric alterations.
Pollutants, such as compounds of sulfur and
nitrogen can directly impact nivean biota and
increase the acidity of runoff, perhaps even
creating pulses of highly acidic runoff that
could be acutely toxic to aquatic life. Acids
actively leach toxic metals from soils and host
rock. Some headwater ecosystems, such as boreal
forests and areas of high hydrothermal
alteration, are particularly sensitive to
increased acidity due to their low neutralizing
capacity. Acids may lower rock and soil pH to a
point where the bio-catalytic acid rock
drainage process is initiated, which has the
effect of both multiplying metal leachate
concentrations and further increasing acidity
through the release of hydrogen ions. In
addition, several toxic metals released as
emissions from human sources, such as Cadmium,
Mercury, and Silver, are deposited as
contaminants into the nivean environment.
Perhaps the most serious known threat to biotic
life comes from persistent man-made organic
compounds, many of which are not only responsible
for increased cancer risk but are hormone
disrupters. Chemicals like PCBs, dioxin, and
organochlorines are being atmospherically
deposited with snow. Many of these chemicals
have been shown to reduce or even eliminate the
reproductive potential of species where they have
accumulated in fat and are passed along to future
generations through the womb and through brbreast
milk. Hormone disruptors have been shown to
alter sexual differentiation, brain organization,
and other physiological functions. While
monitoring protocols exist for many of the
contaminants in the aqueous environment,
protocols still need to be developed for the
nivean environment that will provide meaningful
temporal and special information relating to
contaminant deposition, accumulation,
concentrations, exchange, migration, and fate.
Lee Dexter - Northern Arizona University, Prof.
of Geography how would the development of a
'snow system observation protocol' facilitate the
development of an undergraduate (and/or graduate)
'snow system' course syllabus, and its attendant
field camp? Mountain Geographers like myself,
along with many other snow-oriented scientists,
commonly work and teach with a systems view to
the way the cryosphere and all of nature
operates. While much talk is rendered on
interdisciplinary research and teaching, many
barriers to the implementation of a systems
approach still exist in the traditional
departmentalized academic and research world. The
proposed Snow Systems Observation Protocol will
provide a real and a significant first step
leading to a true interdisciplinary snow systems
science framework. If scientists and teachers
could have a purpose-built integrated data
collection system and associated database at
their disposal, common problems and applications
would become much more clearly defined and the
route to their solutions would become more
apparent. From the teaching perspective, existing
snow-related datasets are spotty in spatial and
temporal continuity, are difficult to locate
being housed in widely scattered locations, and
are often difficult to integrate smoothly into a
logical class structure. By having a central
repository of integrated data teachers will be
able to design course modules and lesson plans
that will flow more seamlessly from one topic to
the next. In addition, many of the courses that I
teach have significant field components. It would
be a boon to these classes to have access to
real-time and near real time data as well as
historical records from one central location.
Kelly Elder - Research Hydrologist, USFS Rocky
Mountain Research Station, Fort Collins, CO how
would the development of a 'snow system
observation protocol' contribute to multi-scale
snow research programs and projects, and to
operational uses of snow system data? There is
a strong need for protocol standardization of
snow data collection at the local, regional,
national and international levels. Although
international standards are unlikely at this
time, there is no good reason that we do not have
national standathat are applied down to the local
level. Protocol standardization would facilitate
research across a wide spectrum, from weather,
hydrological and avalanche forecasting to climate
variability and climate change research. One of
the problems with integrating research and
results is due to the wide variety of
methodologies used to collect, analyze and store
snow related data today. Mike Meyers - National
Weather Service, Grand Jct., CO are there
benefits to incorporating multi-scale weather
data (and model outputs) with other 'snow system'
datasets in order to assist weather forecasting
and climate-change research, verification, and
operations? The alpine snow system observation
protocol (SSOP) would impact the National Weather
Service (NWS) operations on several different
levels. From a forecasting perspective, this
dataset would provide valuable information in
data sparse regions of the Rocky Mountain region.
Forecasters would be able to access the data in
real-time, which would aid in the verification of
winter storms. The SSOP data may eventually be
added to other mesoscale observation networks,
such as MesoWest from the University of Utah.
This network would provide a unified archived
dataset and historical database over the
Intermountain West, which would be available for
forecasters and researchers. With the increased
observational network, post-analysis of the
winter storms would be enhanced, which would lead
to improved forecast techniques in complex
terrain. Additional climatic studies would also
be generated as a result of this program. This
data would also be used in local meteorological
mesoscale models (e.g. WRF, RAMS, MM5) with
applications in both forecasting and
post-analysis. Eventually, it may provide
additional input for initialization of these
mesoscale models. Hydrological applications would
benefit from SSOP data, due to improved seasonal
runoff forecasts as a result of the more detailed
observational network. Finally, the NWS mission
of protecting lives and property would be
enhanced with forecasters being able to provide
more advanced notice on dangerous winter storms
as this research is incorporated into the
forecast process. Richard Armstrong - National
Snow and Ice Data Center how would a snow system
dataset best compliment existing snow and ice
datasets currently maintained by NSIDC (and
others), and how would a snow system dataset best
be made accessible (by NSIDC?) to the snow and
earth system science communities? Currently
there are very few mid-latitude snow cover data
sets archived at NSIDC. Most all data sets which
include such parameters as snow depth, snow
density, snow water equivalent and stratigraphy
represent measurements made in the polar regions.
At this point in time NSIDC does not even have a
data category for snow and biological processes
due to the near total lack of such data. The type
of data proposed under the SSOP project would
significantly enhance the breadth of snow cover
data held at NSIDC. Once documented and archived,
these data would be made available to the science
community in much the same fashion as the NASA
Cold Land Processes Experiment data are being
distributed --------- see http//www.nsidc.org/dat
a/clpx/. A metadata catalog and the actual data
are available online via the NSIDC FTP site.
Karl Birkeland - USFS National Avalanche
Center how can a snow system observation
protocol contribute to snow avalanche research
and public safety operations? Our knowledge of
snow avalanches is limited by the available data.
With a few notable exceptions, these data come
from ski areas and other places where avalanches
are actively mitigated with explosives. Thus,
the observed temporal and spatial patterns of
avalanche activity are strongly influenced by
human decisions and the timing of mitigation
measures. This complicates the already difficult
task of understanding avalanche patterns and how
they might be changing in response to different
factors. Further, most avalanche data are based
on a 24 hour clock. However, avalanches tend to
respond to a "storm clock", with avalanche
activity most pronounced either during or
immediately after storm events that add new or
windblown snow to slopes. An SSOP would
establish concrete guidelines for collecting
holistic datasets focusing on natural avalanche
activity. This, in turn, would provide data that
could improve our understanding and forecasting
of snow avalanches. Such forecasting
advancements will increase our ability to protect
property and to save lives in snowy, mountainous
areas.
Colorado
Utah
New Mexico
Arizona
Although snow has long been the subject of
scientific investigation, the vast majority of
the studies have been restricted to the scope of
various disciplines in the physical and
biological sciences. As a result, very few works
permit a full appreciation of snow cover and/or
snow-covered regions as functional ecosystems.
However, as snow scientists became more involved
in research that required an interdisciplinary
approach, and more familiar with the results of
research on snow in disciplines other than their
own, the need to facilitate the exchange of
information and understanding of basic snow
sciences across a wide range of snow-related
research became apparent. Jones, H. G., J. W.
Pomeroy, D. A. Walker, and R. W. Hoham (eds.)
Snow Ecology, Cambridge University Press, New
York, 2001 Indeed, seasonal snow cover is such
an important part of the global climate system
that it can be argued that all ecosystems
around the globe are indirectly affected by
snow cover because of its role as a component of
the climate system. (Groisman and Davies, Snow
cover and the climate system, In Jones et al.,
pp. 1-44)