USGS researcher pilots a UAS at Berthoud Pass

USGS researcher Matt Burgess remotely pilots a UAS collecting lidar data during the April 2022 USGS UASnow project at Berthoud Pass, Colorado.

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.