(Bozeman) With a nearly 1 million dollar grant from the federal Bureau of Reclamation, snow and water scientists at Montana State University have begun testing new methods of measuring snowpack levels with the goal of improving water forecasting for drought, flood and irrigation management in the U.S.
The testing is taking place at the Tenderfoot Creek Experimental Forest in central Montana, where stream gauges are already in place to measure snowmelt runoff. The team recently placed a permanently mounted cosmic ray sensor in the forest, which will continuously transmit real-time data, said MSU.
This comes as the National Weather Service has predicted a dry summer this year due to low snow packing, something that may result in droughts for many regions.
