Airborne Snow Measurement

The District has played a leadership role in bringing Airborne Snow Observation (“ASO”) flights to the St. Vrain and Left Hand Basin and the Northern Front Range in collaboration with many local entities and the Colorado Water Conservation Board (“CWCB”). ASO is an innovative snow measurement technology that combines airborne lidar and spectrometers to provide high resolution, high accuracy, and spatially distributed measurement of snow water volume across entire watersheds. The Project will enhance the Districts understanding of snowpack within our District boundaries in real-time allowing the District, and St. Vrain water users, to use and steward water more efficiently and effectively. The Project builds upon the efforts of the Colorado Airborne Snow Measurement (“CASM”) workgroup conducted throughout 2021, 2022, and 2023 to increase the amount of ASO flights flow across Colorado. Snow-free flights were flown along the Northern Front Range in 2022, funded in large part from a Colorado Water Conservation Board Water Plan Grant, and the first snowpack flights occurred in 2023 through a CWCB WSRF grant. ASO works in conjunction with existing snow monitoring technologies like SNOTEL and provides an invaluable new tool to all water sector stakeholders for making decisions in the increasingly complex water landscape of Colorado and the western U.S. Of existing technologies, airborne lidar provides the most accurate real-time measurement of mountain snowpack across entire watersheds, supporting runoff forecast improvements and management decision-making.