Snow hydrology

Snow hydrology is the scientific discipline for studying the formation, movement and effects of snow.

Snowfall, accumulation and melt are important hydrological processes in watersheds at high altitudes or latitudes. In many western states in USA, snow melt accounts for a large percentage of the spring runoff that serves as water supply to reservoirs, urban populations and agricultural activities.

A lot of snow hydrology groups are pursuing new methods for incorporating snow hydrology into distributed models over complex terrain through theoretical developments, model development and testing with field and remote sensing data sets. Snow hydrology is quite complex and involves both mass and energy balance calculations over a time-varying snow pack which is influenced by spatial location in the watershed, interaction with vegetation and redistribution by winds. Some researchers seek to accurately capture snow dynamics at a point and over a domain as the spatial pattern of snow cover area is readily observable from remote sensing.