Climate change researcher uses unique research tools to track snowpack
When it comes to looking for a unique and inexpensive solution to a scientific research problem one might not look to tennis balls and a slingshot ball launcher. Unless you are Jessica Lundquist a University of Washington assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Looking to find a way to safely and inexpensively set up a sensor network to monitor mountain snow pack melt and water levels, Lundquist deployed dime-sized temperature sensors, first developed for the refrigerated food industry, and tennis balls. According to a university release, she attaches the sensors to tennis balls that are weighted with gravel, and uses a dog-ball slingshot to propel the devices high into alpine trees where they will record and report winter temperatures every hour for up to 11 months in remote locations.
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Not only is the system effective, it cost about $30 per ball with the sensor whereas an advanced scientific weather station runs about $10,000, researchers stated.
The sensors are being used to bolster computer models in areas where water managers want to know exactly where snow is accumulating and on what date it starts to melt, according to a university release.
If more rain falls instead of snow, it will increase the risk of flooding during storms. Lundquist’s sensors are currently being used by the California-Nevada River Forecasting Center as part of a project pinpointing at what elevation snow turns to rain, to improve storm flooding forecasts. As part of that project, UW graduate students are placing her sensors in river canyons that are too steep for traditional weather stations.
Lundquist is also deploying sensors in Yosemite National Park to see if earlier snowmelt may cause earlier drying of streambeds and affect vegetation growth in the Tuolumne Meadows. Her sensors there provide ground verification of satellite measurements. The City of Seattle is also using Lundquist’s sensors to study how different restoration approaches for trees in the Cedar River watershed, which supplies water to the city, affect snow retention, according to the University of Washington.
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