Research and Development Office

Assessing Satellite Remote Sensing Products to Improve Spatial and Temporal Resolution of Snow Water Equivalence (SWE) Measurements in the San Juan - Chama Project’s Source Watersheds

Project ID: 23061
Principal Investigator: Emma Kelly
Research Topic: Water Supply Forecasting
Funded Fiscal Years: 2023 and 2024
Keywords: None

Research Question

How can satellite remote sensing products, such as Sentinel-1 and stereo satellite imagery, improve the spatial and temporal resolution of snow water equivalent (SWE) measurements in the headwaters of Reclamation's San Juan – Chama Project? How can this data be used on a broader scale and inform Reclamation's water managers at an agency scale?

It is hypothesized that these products can be utilized to provide a fusion snow product that will greatly improve snowpack measurement data on the spatial scale during accumulation and melt phases. Combining multiple technologies, including satellite and ground-based measurements, will provide spatially relevant data at a high temporal scale.

The primary deliverable from this project would be a workflow that takes satellite data and distills it down into relevant snow depth mapping that can be used by Reclamation to support forecasting and planning. This workflow will initially use Sentinel-1 data but could, in the future, be easily transitioned to capture and distill data from new, more advanced, satellites, such as the upcoming NASA-India Space Research Organization Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite that is due to launch in 2023. Once developed and piloted in this proposal, this workflow product could be utilized in other basins throughout Reclamation's service area. The technology developed through this proposal could be broadly implemented throughout the west to improve Reclamation's overall forecasting and water-delivery planning with its customers.

To develop this product, this project's spatial focus is Reclamation's San Juan Chama Project's source watersheds: the Rio Blanco, the Little Navajo, and the Navajo River. However, the workflow product from this project could be used Reclamation-wide for better SWE estimates in any contributing basin to a Reclamation snow-melt driven water-delivery project.

Need and Benefit

As described in the 2023 S&T Program Regional Director Needs and the 2023 Innovation Strategy Annual Implementation Plan, Reclamation needs to improve snowmelt runoff forecasts for more accurate water supply estimates. To accomplish this, Reclamation needs SWE measurements on a basin scale with a consistently high temporal scale to capture any SWE changes during the accumulation period as well as snowmelt timing to adjust their forecasts. The data processing techniques for acquiring this higher scale also need to include rapid turnover for results to be provided to the decision makers to readily adapt to changes in snowpack.

The results of this project will establish a robust method for snowpack measurements in the San Juan Chama Project's (SJCP) source watersheds that will greatly improve forecast capabilities for future climate conditions. This data will be useful for Reclamation's water managers and the SJCP's Contractors, including the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority, the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District, and the City of Santa Fe. Further, once developed and piloted in this proposal, this workflow product could be utilized in other basins throughout Reclamation's service area. The technology developed through this proposal could be broadly implemented throughout the west to improve Reclamation's overall forecasting and water-delivery planning with its customers at an Agency scale, not just in the SJCP service area.

There are other ongoing, relevant projects that would be to Reclamation's deficit to miss out on collaboration with. If this project is not funded, there would be a missed opportunity to collaborate with current NASA SnowEx efforts, a program that works to further progress the accuracy of snow measurements during the NISAR campaign, which include similar spatial and temporal scale goals. Reclamation will also miss an opportunity to create a snow product that will achieve the goals and mandates put for by Congress in the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program Authorization Act.

Immediate benefits of the proposed project will include data processing methods to retrieve snow depth and SWE measurements at the basin scale throughout the snow season. This would greatly improve snow measurement resolutions (temporal and spatial) and the accuracy of SWE inputs for runoff modelling. The costs for implementing these new methods would be relatively low as the satellite technology is currently in use.

Future benefits of this proposal would include the ability to collect high-resolution SWE data over multiple seasons to improve forecasting to better adapt to climate changes. This data would also inform Reclamation and other Federal Agencies of optimal locations for future snow measurement stations (e.g., SNOTEL) to increase accuracy and temporal scale, if required.

The workflow product of this project could be implemented Reclamation-wide and would improve Reclamation's overall forecasting and water-delivery planning with its customers in the West.

Finally, Reclamation would be well-positioned to adapt these remote sensing methods to take advantage of newer technology satellites launching in the coming years, such as the upcoming NASA-Indian Space Research Organization Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) satellite and the Radar Observing System for Europe - L-Band (ROSE-L) satellite. The data processing workflow would be adjusted to include L-band frequencies, which would expand the capacity at which different snowpacks could be measured.

Contributing Partners

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about partners.

Research Products

Contact the Principal Investigator for information about these documents.

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