Item: Design and Installation of a Tipping Bucket Snow Lysimeter
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Title: Design and Installation of a Tipping Bucket Snow Lysimeter
Proceedings: International Snow Science Workshop 2014 Proceedings, Banff, Canada
Authors:
- Kelly Elder [ US Forest Service, Fort Collins, CO, USA ]
- Hans Peter Marshall [ Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA ]
- Lee Elder [ Western Washington University, Bellinhgham, WA, USA ]
- Banning Starr [ US Forest Service – RMRS, Fraser, CO, USA ]
- Andrew Karlson [ Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA ]
- Jake Robertson [ Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA ]
Date: 2014-09-29
Abstract: Snow lysimeters can be used to measure melt water movement in seasonal snowpacks. They are based on the same principles as soil lysimeters, in that they are designed to measure the movement of liquid water through a porous matrix. Lysimeters serve several useful research purposes with significant potential applied uses. They may be used to measure ripening processes within the snowpack, melt water production rates, and travel time though the snow pack. This information may also be useful operationally to avalanche forecasters and water managers. Periodic chemical sampling allows concentrations to be combined with volume to calculate mass flux and preferential elution of chemical species. Melt collectors may be placed at chosen heights within the snowpack, or may be placed at the snow/soil interface. The lysimeters described in this paper were placed at the bottom of the snowpack, on the soil surface. Although the design and installation of the lysimeter are relatively simple, we have learned a great deal about both the apparatus and process with more than a decade of experience. We describe the design and installation of a tested snowmelt lysimeter used in a variety of snowpack and climatic environments, including Fraser Experimental Forest near Fraser, Colorado, USA, and Boise State University's Bogus Basin Snow Study Site, near Boise, Idaho, USA.
Object ID: ISSW14_paper_P2.41.pdf
Language of Article: English
Presenter(s):
Keywords: snowmelt, melt water, wet snow
Page Number(s): 861-868
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