![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Why is distinguishing rain from snow important?
NASA's GCPEx Mission: What We Don't Know About Snow
Scientists have recently been finding ways to predict snowfall from space, similar to the way meteorologists today have discovered how to predict rain. The GPCEx (GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment) works in conjunction with the GPM satellite, set to launch in 2014, to set standards and to eventually provide cold precipitation predictions every three hours worldwide. Being able to detect snowfall and predicting the amount of snowfall is critical information so that environmentalists can see how much water is coming out from the predicted snowfall.
The overall problem is, though, is that scientists are not aware of the amount of water that comes down as snow first.
Stemming from the overall problem, the satellites that aid in detecting rain and snow can only differentiate the two to a certain degree and at times can be hard to see when the microwave radiometer (the instrument used to detect snow and rain) picks up frequencies of both types of precipitation. Scientists agree that rain and snow can be distinguished by temperature, size and shape.
Knowing how much water comes out of snow-melt is important as snow is a major source of water for mountainous areas, greatly effects the water cycle in the spring and summer as it becomes our drinking water, and with the recent climate changes, more water is evaporating in the water cycle than staying down on Earth and is decreasing the quantity of the water resource.
But why is this important? While snowfall and how much water is carried in snow is important for those regions, why do scientists think that this is such a critical problem to solve? What are ways to measure snow fall and what are ways we can measure the amount of water it carries when it falls?
Scientists have recently been finding ways to predict snowfall from space, similar to the way meteorologists today have discovered how to predict rain. The GPCEx (GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment) works in conjunction with the GPM satellite, set to launch in 2014, to set standards and to eventually provide cold precipitation predictions every three hours worldwide. Being able to detect snowfall and predicting the amount of snowfall is critical information so that environmentalists can see how much water is coming out from the predicted snowfall.
The overall problem is, though, is that scientists are not aware of the amount of water that comes down as snow first.
Stemming from the overall problem, the satellites that aid in detecting rain and snow can only differentiate the two to a certain degree and at times can be hard to see when the microwave radiometer (the instrument used to detect snow and rain) picks up frequencies of both types of precipitation. Scientists agree that rain and snow can be distinguished by temperature, size and shape.
Knowing how much water comes out of snow-melt is important as snow is a major source of water for mountainous areas, greatly effects the water cycle in the spring and summer as it becomes our drinking water, and with the recent climate changes, more water is evaporating in the water cycle than staying down on Earth and is decreasing the quantity of the water resource.
But why is this important? While snowfall and how much water is carried in snow is important for those regions, why do scientists think that this is such a critical problem to solve? What are ways to measure snow fall and what are ways we can measure the amount of water it carries when it falls?
no subject
(Anonymous) 2012-02-10 02:22 pm (UTC)(link)Question responce
It is important because with the slow loss of water, which is an essential resource for life, we need to know how fast we're losing it and what percentage we're getting back.
While snowfall and how much water is carried in snow is important for those regions, why do scientists think that this is such a critical problem to solve?
it results in the loss of water in that area, and water is an essential part of life. without water, we wouldn't be able to survive. and if water levels are dwindling fast, we're in trouble.
What are ways to measure snow fall and what are ways we can measure the amount of water it carries when it falls?
measure how fast the snow is falling and collect it, when multiply the amount collected in a certain amount of time by how large the area of snow is perhaps.