Extrapolating snow measurements on the Marmot Creek experimental basin, ( Canada).

Abstract

From 1969 to 1980, each March, snow depth and water equivalent were sampled around 249 pins of a grid covering the forested portion of Marmot Creek basin. Continuous record from 4 snow pillows and monthly data from 6 snow courses were used to extrapolate the spatially intensive grid data to other winter months. Snow courses were better estimators of grid than snow pillows. Readings from about 80% of the pins were correlated to the data from one or the other snow pillows with r2 above 0.70. The ability of a snow course to track the year-to-year variations in the March data of individual pins of the grid was not related to similarities in elevation or aspects between the course and the pins.-Author