USGS researcher setting up a GPS base station during a UAS mission at Winter Park

USGS researcher Joe Adams (NUSO) setting up a GPS base station at one of the study sites for a snow mapping project in Winter Park, Colorado. GPS base station data is used in post-processing to improve the geospatial accuracy of UAS collected data.

NUSO scientists teamed with the USGS Water Resources Mission Area in a multi-year data collection effort to help develop and verify a process for generating snow depth measurements from UAS-collected LiDAR data from 2020 to 2022. This ability to calculate centimeter-level snow depth measurements from remotely sensed data also contributes to the USGS Next Generation Water Observing System (NGWOS) goal of remotely sensed mapping of snow conditions to better forecast snowmelt runoff in Colorado watersheds.