SnowMARS will develop methodologies for the remote sensing of snow mass, or the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE). This is a parameter which is currently poorly observed; we lack baseline knowledge on where, when and how snow mass is changing. Remote sensing offers the only viable tool for observing snow mass in remote areas of the Arctic, subarctic and high mountain regions; the evolution of snowpacks can also be physically modeled from weather observations and reanalysis. However, despite decades of effort, remote sensing and modeling of snow mass still lack to provide the information needed by operational weather forecasts, climate studies, and hydrology. SnowMARS will address these issues by investigating optimal methods of combining remote sensing with modeling tools. This will enable to both interpret better the past evolution of snowpacks (for climatology) and to develop methods for tracking snow mass at unprecedented accuracy using novel sensors (for NWP and hydrology).

2025

2029