What are the Airborne Snow Observatories (ASO)?

Building on a 7-year legacy with the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Airborne Snow Observatories Inc. is uniquely positioned to provide basin-scale inventories of mountain snow water resources worldwide.

ASO technologies and applications have been developed in close partnership with water managers in the western US – these enduring and evolving partnerships remain a core strength of our approach to water management decision support.

With industry-leading geospatial technology, innovative leadership and application support, and the exclusive license to the data processing workflow we developed at JPL, ASO Inc. is leading the deployment and integration of this paradigm-shifting approach to snow water resource monitoring and management.

Mission

To provide highly accurate and reliable basin-wide distributed measurements of snow water equivalent and forecasts of snowmelt runoff with unique remote sensing and physical modeling, allowing the global water community to make the best use of our planet’s water resources.

Goals

Our goals address our mission statement by implementing the technology we originated at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for customers worldwide who need accurate, spatially distributed snow measurements for water management and scientific investigations.

01. MEASUREMENT

Accurate snow depth, snow water equivalent, and snow albedo measurements across entire watersheds.

02. MODELING

Constraining physically based, distributed snow modeling for accurate daily representation of snow mass and energy states.

03. FORECASTING

Accurate snowmelt runoff forecasts at daily to seasonal time scales from physically based and empirically based model structures.

04. RAPID DELIVERY

Providing rapid turnaround of snow property measurements, snowpack modeling, and streamflow forecasts to support active, critical water management.