Optimized water use, improved safety, and preservation of our most critical natural resource - water
The SNOWi solution is based on a comprehensive physical snow balance model, which is driven by highly precise weather forecasts and calibrated by ground measurements, novel radar sensors and near real-time satellite observations.
SNOWi provides detailed information on
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Snow Water Equivalent - SWE
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Snow Melt Water
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Snow Depth
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Snow Layering
The snow balance model covers entire mountain ranges, such as the European Alps, in a 100m spatial resolution. On a catchment scale it operates in a 30 m resolution. It is easily scalable and can be deployed to various regions of interest. It provides hourly forecasts up to ten days. Furthermore, it can generate time series of the past years in a daily resolution.
The combined strengths of satellite observations, ground measurements and weather forecasts enables us to provide highly resolved snow information on past trends, the present state and future changes in complex mountain areas.
Our snow depth product was validated with 23 independent reference datasets from drone and aerial surveys (2,274,247 data points in total) across different times over the snow season. With an average root mean square error (RMSE) of just 0.36 meters snow depth, we achieved very high accuracies, considering the high variability of snow depth in alpine areas on a 30 meter scale.
Our versatile service on accurate, high-resolution snow products across different time-scales is easily available via a user-friendly API and/or FTP.
Customized Offering
You know your catchment. Let us know how best we can help. We can customize our offering to give you what you need.
Satellite Data
Understand snow characteristics and trends across an entire basin or mountain range through multi-satellite imagery that provides exact snow cover data in a high 20 m spatial on a daily basis.
Snow Radar
Understand the actual snowpack and retrieve accurately Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) calculations with high resolution radar imaging either through a strategically located constant measuring point or through a basin-wide mobile survey.
Snow Balance Model
Based on highly precise weather analysis and forecasts for mountainous regions our physically based snow balance model calculates catchment-wide snow depth, snow density and SWE for historical periods, the current situation and future development. Using weather forecasts enables the prediction of the onset of the melting period and the amount of melting water. Continuous recalibration of this snow model based on spatially explicit satellite observations and highly precise ground measurements results in accurate high-resolution products on snow depth, snow water equivalent and liquid snow melt.
