Project Description: 

Much of the snowpack in the Western US mountains comes from a handful of snowfall storms. Climate change is jeopardizing this resource as the temperature rises and snow melts quickly. We are interested in understanding if there is a characteristic difference between where the snow falls in relationship to the temperature of the storms. A better characterization of where the snow if falling allow us to quantify how much snow water is and will be available in warmer climate for water resources applications. 

 

In this project the student will analyze a novel snow water equivalent dataset estimating snow at 500 m resolution for the Western US, as well as ancillary data from atmospheric reanalysis (precipitation, air temperature, etc). The student will be guided in learning the research process as well as remote sensing data analysis using data processing software such as Python, MATLAB, R, etc. 

A draft timeline of th project include: Week 1-5: Collating data, understading objective of the project and getting familiar with the dataset, and relevant papers; Week 6-10: Categorize the domain in sub-areas of interest. Data analysis for one of the area of interest; Week 11-15: Generalization of the methods to entire domain and wrap-up of results.

Department: 
ESPM
Undergraduate's Role: 

The student will be guided in learning the research process as well as remote sensing data analysis using data processing software such as Python, MATLAB, R, etc.

Undergraduate's Qualifications: 

Basic knowledge of terrestrial hydrology, statistics, data analysis, and programming 

Location: 
On Campus
Hours: 
6-9 hours