THE MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN COOPERATIVE SNOW STUDY SITE: DATA ACQUISITION,. MANAGEMENT, AND DISSEMINATION

Ski Area collaborate in a snow study site located at 2960 m on Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada of California. At this site we monitor virtually all of the important processes and properties of snow cover representative of the sub-alpine to alpine transition zone of a maritime snow cover. Measured components of the surface energy exchange include incoming direct and diffuse solar radiation, red-band solar radiation, longwave radiation, wind speed at two levels, air temperature and humidity. They also include reflected solar and red-band radiation and surface temperature. Measurements of the snow include precipitation via a gage, standard snow boards and a prototype digital snow board, the total snow water equivalent of the pack, its depth and the temperature profile across the soil-snow interface. A set of Iysimeters collects meltwater that reaches the soil surface. A digital camera collects hourly images of the array of pyranometers and the site surroundings to check for rime. In 1999, we established a data and communication protocol to assure data quality and continuity and to facilitate real time data availability. We have automated hourly data retrieval, quality checking, and ingestion into the UCSB Snow Hydrology database. Data and communication errors activate automatic email notification to site operators and database managers. Users may acquire the hourly data via the Internet in ASCII format, input format for the CRREL SNTHERM.89 snow model, and for the Utah Energy Balance model