page_title: Snow hydrology
section_title: Modern
hierarchical_section_title: Snow hydrology / History / Modern
caption_attribution_description: English: Storage room for global ice core samples
context_page_description: Snow hydrology is a scientific study in the field of hydrology which focuses on the composition, dispersion, and movement of snow and ice. Studies of snow hydrology predate the Anno Domini era, although major breakthroughs were not made until the mid eighteenth century.
  Snowfall, accumulation and melt are important hydrological processes in watersheds at high altitudes or latitudes. In many western states in United States, snow melt accounts for a large percentage of the spring runoff that serves as water supply to reservoirs, urban populations and agricultural activities.
  A large portion of snow hydrology groups are pursuing new methods for incorporating snow hydrology into distributed models over complex terrain through theoretical developments, model development and testing with field and remote sensing data sets. Snow hydrology is quite complex and involves both mass and energy balance calculations over a time-varying snow pack which is influenced by spatial location in the watershed, interaction with vegetation and redistribution by winds.
context_section_description: One of the earliest modern records of the snow hydrology practice, was introduced by the geologist, Antonio Vallisnieri around the time of the 17th century. His work Theorized, “That rivers arising from springs in the Italian Alps came from rain and snowmelt seeping into underground channels."
  The first American research labs were introduced during the 1940s in order to solve the many problems associated with snow movement in the World War II era. These three labs were:
  Central sierra Snow Laboratory (CSSL)
  Upper Columbia Snow Laboratory (USCL)
  Willamette Basin Snow Laboratory (WBSL)
  Currently there are hundreds of snow hydrology labs and sensing devices placed throughout the world. As of 2004, every continent was under observation with the exception of Antarctica. Since then, several sensing devices have been established in the Arctic Circle, allowing for constant observation. Using these in part with satellite imaging systems has produced an accurate depiction of underlying landmass, which was unknown in the past.
caption: Retrieving an ice core from the National Ice Core Lab
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