Snow-pillow: creation experience and prototype operation

Abstract

A snow-pillow (or snow-measuring pillow) is a device designed to directly determine the snow water equivalent in the snow cover by measuring the weight or pressure of the snowfall. Snow-pillows allow collecting, accumulating and transmitting information about snow accumulation and snow melting with high discreteness, accuracy and promptness. Within the framework of implementing the initiated project, a snow-pillow prototype was created based on analogue strain-measuring sensors working in conjunction with an accumulating mechanism and a digital indicator run via a microcontroller. Subject to agreement with the directorate of the Federal State Budgetary Institution “Bashkir UGMS”, the snow-pillow prototype was installed on the territory of the meteorological station Ufa-Dema in November 2019. Placing the pillow at the active weather observation station allows comparing the results obtained from the prototype with the data obtained at the station. Comparing the observation results for the autumn-winter season of 2019 has allowed us to conclude that the results obtained at the snow pillow are in line with the data of instrumental observations. The operating experience of the snow pillow shows that the prototype created under the project is applicable for evaluating the snow water equivalent, provided some minor changes are introduced into the design. In the future, observation results obtained from a network of snow pillows can be used for adjusting analytical models of snow accumulation and melting within the territory.