$2 Million Grant To Measure Snowpack

Roger Bales was in the news today. He was one of my Ph.D. advisors, and it's good to see him bringing in the big grants. And Martha Conklin's there too!:

Researchers with the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of California, Merced, have received a $2 million grant from the National Science Foundation to expand on a prototype system that uses a network of wireless sensors to track snowpack depth, water storage in soil, stream flow, and water use by vegetation in the Sierra — information that is key to efficient water usage.

The research team, led by SNRI Director and UC Merced Professor Roger Bales and UC Berkeley Professor Steven Glaser, will develop and implement a network of sensors throughout the 2,000-square-mile American River Basin of the Sierra Nevada, serving as the largest prototype yet of a system that could ultimately provide water managers in California the ability to better predict snowmelt runoff, the source of much of the state’s water supply.

...The $2 million grant will last for four years. The senior research team is rounded out by UC Merced Professor Martha Conklin and Danny Marks of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service.