Recipient Organization
ALPINE HYDROMET
456 CRESTFIELD CIRCLE
ROSEVILLE,CA 956785980
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Alpine Hydromet sets out to research and further develop the applicationof cosmic ray detection technology for hydrological monitoring. This project will developa next generation snow water equivalent sensor, the Cosmic Ray Detector (CRD). The CRD measures passive secondary incoming cosmic radiation which attenuates through water. The attenuation of the signal can be used to quantify the amount of water in the snowpack and will measure through liquid water and ice without issue. Snow water equivalent and snow depth are measured in existing hydrometeorological networks to calculate the density of snow. The density of the snow is used to forecast when the seasonal snowmelt runoff will begin. Snow water equivalentis also used to quantify the amount of water which is fed into streamflow forecast models. These models are derived from regression analysis of snow course data, precipitation, soil moisture, and observed streamflow in basins. Improved data gives State and Federal agencies more reliable and timely forecasts vital for farmers, business owners, and communities.Monlau and Warnick (1982) explain, "Irrigation, power production, recreation and fisheries are only a few of the many uses to which this water can be put but wise use of this vast resource requires a knowledge of its variability, both in time and space. This requires proper instrumentation and a knowledge of snow characteristics and hydrology." This isamplified in larger state economies such as California which to leads the nation in agricultural production with $47 billion in cash receipts(California Department of Food & Agriculture, 2016). US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) analyzed the importance of snow water equivalent for agriculture, recreation, flood management, and power generation and their findings revealed that 50-80% of water supply in the western United States comes from the snowpack (USDA NRCS).The cosmic ray detection principal that the CRD is based on has been proven to be an accurate sensor for measuring snow water content. Initial testing of the principal for snowpack monitoring was done in during the winters of 1996, 1997 and through February 24, 1998, had a correlation (r2 = 0.97) between the detectors and the manual core samples for 105 data points that was very promising.(Osterhuber, Gehrke, & Condreva, 1998) Further research is needed for basic-scale operation, integration of data, and application in remote forest with solar panel operation and a feasible installation. The passive cosmic rays that the sensor detects varies over space and time though there is little understood about how this varies on a basin-wide scale, especially during storms which can create noise in the data. The current configuration uses a reference detector installed above the snowpack on a tower to correct for the noise but the added sensor that must be installed always above the max height of the snowpack is less practicalfor this application where snow heights can regularly reach above 10 feet and even above 20 feet. Research in the cosmic radiation variation and variability is needed to either reduce the size of the reference detector, use a regional reference that can compensate all sensors for an entire basin, remove the reference detector altogether using meteorological parameters or a combination of a regional reference and local meteorological conditions. Power consumption is also high and Alpine Hydromet will be conducting research on ways that the power supply can be reduced by switching the sensor on and off or removing non-critical intermediate electronics. Included in the objectives in our data collection is to verify the minimum measurement duration to achieve an accurate reading which will standardize the minimum measurement duration requirements.The realistic development opportunity of the CRD will allow United States' Federal and State operations to phase out the use of chemical-based fluid snow pillows which have been an environmental concern for some time. Once the data proves to have a high correlation to the historical data sets, the phasing out of fluid pillows will begin. As existing fluid pillows fail, become damaged, or continuously report inaccurate data, the fluidless sensor will begin to replace the over 50-year-old technology. When budgets permit, agencies can be proactive in the replacement of fluid pillows to alleviate the demands from landowners to remove the snow pillow fluid. This also will end the cycle of fluid pillows and offer a long-term solution that should work without maintenance for a minimum of 10 years. This is a direct cost saving for Federal and State budgets. The main objective in developing a sensor to replace the legacy instrumentation is to assure that the sensor will not affect the climate data record; significant research and studying needs to be conducted to assure this. The State of California, in particular, is facing pressure from local landowners to remove fluid systems and are in need ofalternative instrumentation.There are also several issues with a weighing principle to measure the snowpack. Complex snow structures can inhibit accurate measurements which are projected to become more frequent in a changing climate as snow levels rise and more rain-on-snow events are experienced (Musselman,et al., 2018). The proposed sensor will provide more robust and reliable data which is used in forecast models for everything from recreation, hydropower generation, water supply planning for agricultural uses, urban water deliveries, forecast informed reservoir operations, andflood forecasting. Water from the snowpack touches every aspect of life in the United States, improving monitoring practices will benefit the economy and the citizensfacingwater demand challenges as they become increasingly complicated. Alpine Hydrometanticipates placingthe United States as a leader in snow monitoring practices with this promising technology.California Department of Food & Agriculture. (2016). California Agricultural Statistical Review, 2015-2016. California Department of Food & Agriculture. Retrieved from https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/statistics/PDFs/2016Report.pdfMolnau, M., & Warnick, C. (1982). A History of Snow Research at the University of Idaho. Western Snow Conference, (pp. 212-214). Reno.Musselman, Keith N., Lehner, Flavio, Ikeda, Kyoko, Clark, Martyn P., Prein, Andreas F., Liu, Changhai, . . . Rasmussen, Roy. (2018). Projected increases and shifts in rain-on-snow flood risk over western North America. Nature Climate Change, 808-812.Osterhuber, R., Gehrke, F., & Condreva, K. (1998). Snowpack Snow Water Equivalent Measurement Using the Attenuation of Cosmic Radiation. Western Snow Conference, (pp. 19-25). Snowbird.USDA NRCS. (n.d.). Snow & Tell. Retrieved from Natural Resource Conservation Service: https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_MEDIA/stelprdb1246671.jp
Animal Health Component
50%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
40%
Applied
50%
Developmental
10%
Goals / Objectives
The project objective is to research, design and test the cosmic ray detector which eliminates all major known issues with current snow water equivalent remote, continuous monitoring. Initial proof of concept has been tested through further research is required to refine the measurement for basin-scale hydrological application. Additional research will be conducted for the sensor that will additionally reduce the costs, improve electronics and signal processing aiding in reducing power consumption, and understand temporal variation. The project will be reviewed by leading operational snow hydrologists who work with current networks for water supply and flood forecasting. This will aid in providing a peer-reviewed design to keep the cost of installation and reoccurring maintenance of the sensors low. The participating snow hydrologists will also participate in data analysis prior to entering Phase II for product commercialization. Alpine Hydromet anticipates having a configuration for one to two prototype designs for side by side comparison with the legacy technology to enter Phase II.The research of the CRD will lead to the development and commercialization of a new age snow water content sensor, allowing for the phase-out of fluid-based sensors. This will directly alleviate environmental impacts, improve data reliability, and minimize reoccurring costs for the operators which are funded by taxpayers. The major goals are divided into two main aspects.GOAL 1:The first goal is tobetter understand thevariation over space and time of secondary cosmic radiation in thehigh energy band beingmeasuringon abasin-wide and state-wide scale. This has been outlined with three questions that this project will answer.Objective 1: What averaging time of raw data will achieve the necessary precision?Objective 2: Can a smaller scintillator be used as a reference detector without affecting accuracy?Objective 3: Does each station need a reference detector, or could one reference detector be applied to a region?A portable station has been designed to collect data over the first four months. The data will be used tounderstand the variation of secondary cosmic radiation on smalltime-scales and over smaller regions across elevation gradients from 5,000 feet to 9,000 feet. The analysis of this data will allowAlpine Hydromet toknow ifthereference detector can be reduced in size fora lower cost solution but also for an easier installation process for the state and federal hydro-meteorological network operators. We anticipate being able toknowif thesensor can workin any of the followingfour ways: with the original reference detector size only, with a reducedsized reference detector, through a multi-reference network, or through meteorological compensation and remove the reference detector altogether.Alpine Hydromet will set all stations with enough power to operate continuously. The high-resolution raw data will then be post-processed by applying averages ranging from 10-minutes up to 24-hours for each data collection location. The data from each location will be used to examine the most appropriate averaging time necessary to achieve accuracy that is acceptable to the users. Data from varying averaging times will be compared and it is known that shorter averaging times can be applied for higher elevations, though it is unknown where these breakpoints will occur.GOAL 2:The second goal is to prove that the principal measure reliably and accurately in the most extreme snowpacks with varying percentages of ice, liquid water and in the deepest snowpacks. This has been outlined with one questions that the project will answer.Objective 4: What is the relationship between the attenuation of cosmic rays and water content?A study will also be conducted where the sensor will be submerged at varying depths of water up to 10 feet of water to validate the capacity of the detector to measure water accurately and reliably on often harsh mountain snow environment. 10 feet of water has been selected because that is the maximum snow water content measured at existing stations and liquid water is the densest form of water. It is an important step to prove accuracy and durability with this quantity of water to assure network operators that the device is capable of measurements in all anticipated snowpack but measuring in water allows for accurate testing and known water levels.GOAL 3:The final goal is to reduce the overall cost to the state and federal agencies in equipment purchase cost, transportation costs and time costs incurred during installing and maintaining the sensor. This includes reducing the power required to allow operators to monitor with 12-volt DC battery and solar panel configurations. The less power the sensor will require, then the smaller the solar panels and battery banks will need to be. This objective was simplified into the question below.Objective 5: How can electronics be simplified to work with off the shelf data loggersThis question will be answered by spending more time with the electronics and existing data loggers that are utilized by network operators to measure the existing current draw, isolate the areas of the detection array that require the most amount of power to analyze the feasibility of reducing the power draw. This will also be analyzed with the 4 months of data collection by verifying the minimum measurement time required for an accurate measurement. With this data Alpine Hydromet can configure the system to power on and off to obtain measurements rather than running continuously and in return reduce power requirements.
Project Methods
The problem has been identified and validated by State and Federal agencies who monitor the network. The initial research for the project has already been conducted with evidence that the measurement principle will work for all existing snowpack conditions across the entire United States which experience some of the deepest and wettest snow across the globe due to the maritime conditions on the west coast. The research questions have been formulated and outlined with appropriate experiments to make observations and collect data that will allow Alpine Hydromet to conduct an analysis that will guide the next steps in the development of the CRD. The data collection process will have a control station where baseline data will be collected continuously. A portable station will data collected at each location along the American, Yuba and Bear River Basins at varying elevations from 5,500-9,000-foot elevations. An additional location at a similar elevation in a southern basin will also be made to evaluate the deviation from the control station. The data collection will be made conjunction with local network operators at existing stations which will aid in Phase II development and testing to provide more repeatable data in the process and to assure the basic research is being done simultaneously in an applied manner. Meteorological parameters are measured at many of the stations and will be collected to analyze the effect of passing pressure systems and varying temperatures on the measurement. This will allow decisions to be made on the feasibility of reducing or removing the reference detector that is understood to be required for clean data.The findings will provide science-based knowledge and be presented through a research poster to the scientific and network operation community. This presentation of findings will also be used as part of the evaluation by receiving direct feedback from the network operators and users of snowpack data for decision making and research. However, Alpine Hydromet has also decided to build the evaluation into the project by establishing an informal steering committee who will aid in the selection of the locations for our data collection and be a part of the discussion of application, measurement frequency requirements and power supply requirements for a functional integration into existing networks.There will be three main evaluation points: 1. the validation of reliable data collection up to 10 feet of water, 2. the data collection and analysis of reference detector size and application in the data compensation process, 3. signal processing and power supply requirements for station integration. The project will be successful if Alpine Hydromet has a clear outline for the development of 1 or 2 prototype sensors to be developed for a full winter of comparative data collection with an existing station. The key milestone of success for the project will be the award of Phase II and interest from DWR and NRCS to co-locate the prototype sensors with their stations for continued testing to prove data correlation with existing datasets. Alpine Hydromet anticipates when the prototype is completed and full comparison of data is conducted delivering reliable and accurate data, the agencies will beginto place orders to co-locate the CRD at more stations and begin to phase out the use of snow pillows.