So these photon measurements are from central Montana,
an agricultural area that most people
aren't always familiar with, and they think of Montana.
But Montana grows a lot of grain, a lot of foodstuffs, wheat,
lentils, peas, and these measurements
are right in that kind of agricultural heartland of the state.
Exactly dead center,
geographic center.
So because we're working in an agricultural area
that has a lot of different crop types, and so snow accumulates
and persists at different rates depending on the crop type.
And a lot of is because of wind.
And so what we're able to do using lidar is we're able to measure or quantify
how that snow persists in different crop types and where it persists.
And and that's something that has not been done very much to really understand
how crop type and stubble, height influence snow accumulation.
And so lidar allows us to do that and flying over it with with drones
or UAVs really allows us to do a more focused study.
Neumann: By comparing ICESat-2 measurements from times of year
when there's no snow on the landscape with following passes,
when there is snow on the landscape, allows us to measure the depth
or the height of the snow sitting on the land.
In this scene in Moccasin, Montana, this is an agricultural area
where the snow cover can often be discontinuous and patchy.
The small footprint size of ICESat-2, which is right around 10 meters
or about 30 feet, and the fast pulse repetition rate of the laser
allows scientists
to measure small scale changes in the snow depth across the landscape.
That can be important in agricultural areas like
Mocassin, Montana, where that seasonal snowfall
is a primary source of the spring water to allow crops to start growing.
Sproles: So another way that ICESat-2 is potentially valuable
looking forward is to combine that data with with new techniques
that are coming off new sensors.
For example, NASA is going to be launching NISAR next year.
That will really allow us to compare and NISAR
satellite uses a different kind of sensor.
It uses kind of a microwave-based approach, as compared to a laser based approach.
I think comparing those two with regards to snow
depth, again, is going to provide a lot more detail and insights
that will weigh at much more broad scales than we can do with this
more focused study area.