ASU and SRP snowpack study begins

Airborne Snow Observatories has teamed up with ASU and SRP on an innovative project that measures the snowpack across Arizona’s watershed. This project would help SRP to better manage our water reservoirs.

The study will focus on seven reservoirs that supply more than 2.5 million residents. SRP will being using planes rigged with state-of-the-art scanning lidar and imagining spectrometers that measure snowpack and how much water it contains.

This advanced technology will bee the first time it is used in Arizona. On January 21, the first flight will depart Safford for a 5-6 hour flight over northeastern Arizona. Depending on the weather, two remaining flight will be scheduled over the next two months.

Enrique Vivoni, a Fulton Professor of Hydrosystems Engineering at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss how this study will impact Phoenix water supply.