Watching the Sierra snow melt

April 15, 2016
Berkeley engineering grad student Ziran Zhang and engineering professor Steven Glaser put on their snowshoes and headed into the hills recently to take a close look at the snowpack high in the Sierra.
They were checking on wireless sensors spread out across the mountainous terrain, hundreds of them, part of a massive environmental monitoring array that tracks the snowmelt — the key to California’s water supply.
The health of California’s economic engines — agriculture, energy production, housing — all are directly linked to the amount of snow stored in the Sierra during a brief winter window, usually from December to March, writes Daniel McGlynn in a story about the snow sensors on the College of Engineering website. The record-setting drought of the past few years, he adds, has underscored the need for a higher resolution picture of the entire water system.