2024 ASO Snow Survey Season Kickoff
CASM stakeholders,
The 2024 ASO flight season will begin soon and we are excited to announce that we are gearing up for snowpack surveys and streamflow forecasts across much of Colorado in the coming months.
ASO Engagement Survey
As the CASM program grows, we want to keep track of how ASO data is utilized and how to improve water management across the state. We would like to understand the general awareness of data products that are available, how those data products are used in water management decision-making, and overall program direction.
Please complete this short survey by March 15th to help us track engagement during runoff season.
2024 CASM Kickoff Stakeholder Meeting
The 2024 CASM Kickoff Meeting was held on February 22, 2024. For those who were not able to attend, a recording of the Kickoff meeting can be found on the CASM YouTube channel here.
The meeting agenda, including links to the relevant portions of the video are shown below
0:05 What is ASO?
18:17 Data Product: ASO Snow Survey Data & Reports
21:38 Data Product: iSnobal Snowpack Model Reports
28:40 Data Product: WRF-Hydro Reports
42:45 2024 Flight Plans: Where are we flying this year?
45:30 Case Studies: How have people been using the data?
47:30 Case Study: Dolores Water Conservancy District - 2023 Dolores River Operations
59:45 Case Study: Denver Water - 2023 Optimization of Fraser River Collection System
1:10:05 Case Study: ASO Inc, Data Usage and Case Studies
1:24:00 Overall Program Direction
1:28:18 Getting Involved
2024 Flight Activities
CASM and its partner agencies have secured funding for 16 snow-on flights during the WY2024 season. Below is a map showing the planned WY2024 snow surveys and snow-free flights.
The number of funded snow surveys for each basin is as follows:
Blue and Portion of the Upper South Platte - 2
Conejos - 2
Dolores at Dolores - 2
East & Taylor - 2
Front Range - 1
Upper Roaring Fork - 2
Upper Colorado at Windy Gap - 3
Upper Yampa/Elk - 2
All data products produced by ASO will be made available at the ASO Inc. data portal (free signup required). Snow survey data includes an estimate of total water contained within the snowpack (called the snow water equivalent, or SWE), in a detailed report. Geospatial layers of snow depth (3m resolution), snow water equivalent (50m resolution) and other data products are available as well.
iSnobal is a physically based model that ingests snow depth and SWE data from the ASO surveys and continues to model and track the state of the snowpack between ASO surveys, using modeled inputs such as precipitation and temperature. iSnobal reports are produced and delivered to stakeholders on a regular basis.
For basins that are also funding ASO-integrated seasonal streamflow forecasts, WRF-Hydro natural flow runoff forecasts will be generated for specific forecast points in the basin within 48 hours of the ASO snow survey delivery. WRF-Hydro forecast output will ensemble results of probabilistic streamflow forecasts, showing both assimilated (with ASO) and open-loop (no ASO) results, across a range of percentiles. The WRF-Hydro forecast reports will also include seasonal snowmelt graphs, albedo projections, and snowpack temperature analysis.
Case Studies
CASM aims to provide high-quality ASO datasets to aid water agencies in decision-making processes. Several example case studies where stakeholders have used ASO data in recent years to improve their decision making processes were presented during the kickoff meeting. The segments of the meeting where each case study was discussed can be viewed at the links below:
How to Get Involved
As always, please sign up for our newsletter on the CASM website to receive these updates directly to your inbox.
If you know of others who may be interested in joining the CASM stakeholder group, please forward them this email or reach out to us directly while cc’ing the newly interested stakeholders.
Volunteer for field measurements: We are looking for experienced observers to record field measurements on or around ASO flight days. If you are interested, please contact Erik Skeie (erik.skeie@state.CO.us), Page Weil (page.weil@lrewater.com), or Jeff Deems (deems@airbornesnowobservatories.com) for more information.
CASM has upcoming workshops for different basins within Colorado:
Northern Front Range: March 5th. Please reach out to scott.griebling@svlhwcd.org for more information.
Upper South Platte: March 12th. Please reach out to taylor.winchell@denverwater.org for more information.
CASM will host another stakeholder meeting to discuss the state of the snowpack and model results during runoff season, date TBD but we will announce it to this group.
Thank you for your continued support and involvement with CASM, we are excited to see what the 2024 season will bring!
The CASM Planning Team
