The project’s goal is to
provide new information about the amount of snowmelt flowing from the mountains
into the state's reservoirs, where the water is used for hydropower production
and irrigation said Bales. The Sierra Nevada Hydrologic Observatory will also
provide previously unavailable snowmelt data from higher elevations. "The Sierra
Nevada are particularly vulnerable because a lot of our snowfall
occurs right around freezing -- and it doesn't take much of a temperature shift
to turn that snowfall into rainfall," Bales said.
Monday, 08 January 2007 00:24
Statewide Project Monitors the Efects and Impacts of Global Warming
A University
of California, Merced
professor will be heading a
statewide study project to monitor the effects and impacts of global warming on
the Sierra Nevada snow pack. Professor
and Engineer Roger Bales is coordinating somewhere around 20 scientists for the
project which will use ground sensors and gauges to measure snowfall and the
varying rates of melting snow, which he said have become more irregular due to worldwide
climate change.
The project’s goal is to
provide new information about the amount of snowmelt flowing from the mountains
into the state's reservoirs, where the water is used for hydropower production
and irrigation said Bales. The Sierra Nevada Hydrologic Observatory will also
provide previously unavailable snowmelt data from higher elevations. "The Sierra
Nevada are particularly vulnerable because a lot of our snowfall
occurs right around freezing -- and it doesn't take much of a temperature shift
to turn that snowfall into rainfall," Bales said.
