Montana State receives $1 million grant to test snowpack measurement methods

With a nearly $1 million 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.

Eric Sproles, assistant professor in MSU's Department of Earth Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, said the MSU-led project is one of 15 similar proposals funded by the bureau's Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program to evaluate advanced snow-monitoring technologies for water supply forecasting and it...