Hourly snow energy and mass balance at Atwater Study Plot, Alta, Utah

Atwater Study Plot (ASP), located in the town of Alta, UT in the Wasatch Mountains, which was established in 1939 by Monty Atwater and Ed LaChapelle, is one of the longest running snow observation sites in the Western United States. The historical observations have been primarily snow safety and avalanche forecasting focused. Beginning in 2017 the Snow Hydrology Research to Operations Laboratory (Snow HydRO Lab) at the University of Utah began regular hydrology focused snow pit observations within study plot boundaries. In 2019 the Snow HydRO Lab and the Utah Department of Transportation further supplemented ASP with an instrumentation suite for continuous snow energy and mass balance observations, including incoming and outgoing solar and terrestrial radiation. The goal of the new observations is to support process based hydrologic modelling and better understand controls on snowmelt timing and magnitude. The instrumentation installation and observations make ASP the first snow energy balance study plot in the Wasatch Mountains, and the site has since been used as a validation site for NASA's SnowEx project and is part of the NSF Critical Zone Collaborative Network. Here, we describe the study plot and present (1) the hourly instrumented dataset, which includes standard atmospheric variables (air temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed/direction), radiation balance, precipitation, and snow depth, (2) snow energy balance modelling used to calculate hourly energy exchanges and phase changes, and (3) provide directions to access the publicly available ASP datasets.

Automated summary

The Atwater Study Plot (ASP) is one of the oldest snow observation sites in the Western United States, located in Alta, UT. It has been primarily focused on snow safety and avalanche forecasting, but since 2017, the Snow HydRO Lab at the University of Utah has been conducting hydrology-focused snow pit observations within the study plot. In 2019, additional instruments were installed to observe continuous snow energy and mass balance, making ASP the first snow energy balance study plot in the Wasatch Mountains.