Articles | Volume 12, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-385-2018
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-385-2018
Research article
 | 
31 Jan 2018
Research article |  | 31 Jan 2018

Snow farming: conserving snow over the summer season

Thomas Grünewald, Fabian Wolfsperger, and Michael Lehning

Data sets

Snowfarming data set Davos and Martell 2015 Thomas Grünewald, Fabian Wolfsperger, and Michael Lehning https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.28

Download
Short summary
Snow farming is the conservation of snow during summer. Large snow piles are covered with a sawdust insulation layer, reducing melt and guaranteeing a specific amount of available snow in autumn, independent of the weather conditions. Snow volume changes in two heaps were monitored, showing that about a third of the snow was lost. Model simulations confirmed the large effect of the insulation on energy balance and melt. The model can now be used as a tool to examine future snow-farming projects.