Alaskan’s are used to winter weather impacting their daily commutes, from cold weather and snow storms, to icy roads and ice fog. However, one hazard that is often overlooked in blowing snow. Blowing snow is snow that has already fallen and is lofted into the air by strong winds. Severe blowing snow events can reduce visibility to near-zero conditions, posing a significant danger to both ground and air transportation. 

Forecasting, detecting and monitoring blowing snow can prove challenging with the addition of variables like wind speed and current snow pack. That’s why satellite remote sensing is key to understanding and forecasting blowing snow conditions. 

Over the past several months GINA has been collaborating with NOAA NESDIS’ Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) and the citizen scientists from Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program to test run a new satellite product designed to detect blowing snow. This project combines satellite products for detecting blowing snow with ground images provided by citizen scientists to validate the satellite imagery. 

Blowing snow can be detected by satellites using the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) satellites and the Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) instrument aboard the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES-R series). Both the GOES ABI and JPSS VIIRS use a combination of near-infrared and infrared imagery to highlight blowing snow lifted and transported by strong winds and to distinguish it from surrounding snow and cloud cover. 

Even with this technology there are a few challenges that make detecting blowing snow with satellites difficult. For example, blowing snow satellite products rely on reflected sunlight, meaning that blowing snow can only be detected during the daytime and depends greatly on solar illumination, sun angle, snow plume thickness and clear skies. Another challenge is distinguishing blowing snow from clouds. At times blowing snow can appear cloud-like in satellite imagery making it hard for forecasters to use common satellite imagery techniques. This project aims to use citizen science data to confirm the presence of blowing snow in satellite imagery, thus improving and refining blowing snow satellite products to support NOAA’s National Weather Service forecasts and warnings.

Learn more about this project and its collaborators and how to report your own blowing snow observations here!