The cryosphere forms an integral part of the climate system of the Earth. Measuring the properties of the seasonal and perennial snow cover properties is therefore essential in understanding interactions and feedback mechanisms related to the cryosphere. Snow is a extremely complex and highly variable medium, and all essential properties of seasonal snow cover are challenging to measure. Diverse fields such as hydrology, climatology, avalanche forecasting and Earth Observation from space benefit from improved quantification of snow cover properties, in particular related to the snow microstructure.

The past 10 years snow science has seen a rapid change from a semi-quantitative to a quantitative science. Understanding physical and chemical processes in the snowpack requires detailed measurements of the microstructure. The 4th Snow Science Winter School will teach these advanced techniques, as micro-tomography, measurement of specific surface area by reflection and spectroscopy, near-infrared photography and high-resolution penetrometry. You will learn:

  • State-of-the-art snow measurement techniques
  • Understanding the physical processes responsible for the evolution of the snowpack
  • Understanding vertically resolved snowpack models (Crocus, SNOWPACK) and larger scale land-surface models

Target audience

Any graduate student or post-doc working on snow or in some snow related field, this year especially in remote sensing of the cryosphere, is welcome to participate. Those fields include everybody interested in cryospheric sciences.

Course structure

The focus of this workshop lies on alpine snowpacks, field measurements and snowpack models combined with theoretical lessons in the classroom.

Field and laboratory measurements will be done in small groups of 3-4 students. Each group of students will have to prepare a report describing the methods, results and interpretation, and a comparison between field measurements and snow modelling results.

Location

The course will be at Col du Lautaret in the buildings of the "Station Alpine Joseph Fourier" (N 45°02.112', E 6°24.064, 2100 m a.s.l) with direct access to field sites. The research facilities are working in summer as in winter time, and devoted to research projects or university trainings and courses (ecology, physiology, soil, water, snow, physics of the atmosphere, geology, landscapes, human sciences...). The platform is a part of the ANAEE-facilities project "Analysis and experimentations on ecosystems" coordinated by CNRS, INRA, and Université Grenoble Alpes. The location is ideal for atmospheric and environmental research in the alpine zone. Snow cover at the site persists typically from October to May, making the site very well suited also for snow-related studies.

Course cost

300 euros including accommodation, meals and social events

Registration

Due to the limited number of places, admission to the course is a two-step process:

1. Application - You will first apply to the course by filling the online application form. Applications will close on November 3, 2017, 24:00 UCT. The applications will be judged by a committee (Juha Lemmetyinen, Marie Dumont, Martin Schneebeli). Link to the application form

2. Registration - You will receive an invitation for registration, based on the evaluation made by the committee, until November 10, 2017. Please register by November 20, 2017, otherwise your place will be given to another applicant.

More information on the Snow School webpages or from snowschool@slf.ch.

The Snow Science Winter Schools are joint project of the Finnish Meteorological Institute, the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, and Météo-France-CNRS-CNRM.