Experimental snow measurement methods developed in Sodankylä

New information on manual field measurements of snow water equivalent (SWE) was obtained in Sodankylä Arctic Space Centre as a result of an exceptionally extensive COST ES1404 –field campaign.

Similar data set has not been measured before. The results will be utilized in harmonizing snow measurements and improving their quality and usability. Thereby, also the quality of the current satellite data-based snow monitoring techniques can be improved. Also climate change scenarios exploiting snow information as input data can be enhanced.

The accuracy of SWE measurements and affecting factors were investigated e.g. by comparing 9 different European snow tubes. Snow scientists from Estonia, Finland, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey participated in the campaign. Altogether up to 900 individual SWE measurements were obtained. Using the results, snow manual measurement methods can be developed to be more accurate. FMI is conducting important research related to climate change, weather prediction and hydrological modeling, where high quality field measurements are still needed beside models and satellite data.

The results will be published by combining Sodankylä-Suomi 20-22.02.2018 campaign data with previous Reykjavik-Iceland 2017 and Erzurum-Turkey 2016 field campaign data sets.

Further information:

Research Scientist, Dr. Ali Nadir Arslan, tel. +358 50 320 3386, ali.nadir.arslan@fmi.fi

Research Scientist, Leena Leppänen, tel. +358 40 670 7133, leena.leppanen@fmi.fi

Reference:

COST ES1404: A European network for a harmonised monitoring of snow for the benefit of climate change scenarios, hydrology and numerical weather prediction: http://www.cost.eu/COST_Actions/essem/ES1404