Snowpit Data

[CookieMonster]

iPhone app -that would be neat but probably well outside my area of expertise. Avert.ca is really a cool site, I've been looking around more. It's fascinating. One of my curiosities is figuring out how to produce graphics suitable for comprehension by laymen. Snowpits are conceptually pretty simple, but obviously the interpretation is more complex. Since data sampling forms much of the basis for perception of instability, it would help me if the information were easier to find ( i.e. cheap for anyone to integrate and publish ). The snow world is just awash with really useful information but I sometimes have a hard time finding it except when I run across it by chance.

[neck beard]

One of my curiosities is figuring out how to produce graphics suitable for comprehension by laymen. Snowpits are conceptually pretty simple, but obviously the interpretation is more complex.

The Swiss show profile data with a simple graphic, data gathered with Ram Penetration. It could be a useful way for you to classify the snow pack into a limited number of patterns that are more easily comprehended by the layman than a typical profile chart.

I can't read German very well at all, but of you check this page you see Switzerland with various penetration profiles collected at different sites. They are colour coded according to stability (green, amber, red).
http://www.slf.ch/lawineninfo/schneeinfo/sds/index_EN

There is a fixed number of 10 possible hardness profiles, you can see them in blue on the right hand side of the map. Clicking the profile set gives you the interpretation key (in German). I think it also explains the colour key at the bottom. http://www.slf.ch/lawineninfo/schnee...aeuterungen_DE

Scroll down to see this image of the 10 profiles...





Here is how it works:

Clicking on a profile icon on the map gives you a reasonably standard profile. At the moment near Chur you get profile number 2, in red (poor stability). It is a layman summary of the below chart. Making sense as well: 1F slab on top of facets and depth hoar.

[rossibandit]

^^^^^^

I will take the combo No. 6 snow profile to go with a nice side of pow.

[mikebrom]

Who is this 'layman' you speak of that would be interested and able to extrapolate worthwhile snowpack data from those graphics? My feeling is that those require a good bit experience/training to read. To me it seems like danger rating as well as synopsis is more valuable to the layperson bc community.

When I think of easy to read graphics I think of things similar to the graphics (cartoon like) on our site http://www.cbavalanchecenter.org , not profiles (in any format).

In our case if the user wants more data they can look at avert. I think there are really two different audiences here. The professional or aspiring pro and the recreational cb traveler. With only the former even remotely interested in the amount of data filtering/computer digging involved in something like your SLF example or avert.

[CookieMonster]

It's just computer graphics research so the usefulness is unclear. Usually my computer graphics work has a clearly defined "usefulness" ( i.e. profits ). This work doesn't really have a defined usefulness yet. By way of example: contour maps also require a good bit of training to read ... but only if you think about "maps" in terms of "contour maps" all the time. I've made some other maps that are much easier to read without any training at all.

I'm curious if the same can be done with snow profiles. Perhaps the usefulness will be "reducing uncertainty" or something along those lines. For the recreationist ( maybe an average guy such as myself ) the danger rating is useful at the synoptic scale, but quickly becomes less useful at the meso scale, and can't necessarily be trusted at the slope scale ( during conditional instability ) unless it is augmented with information about current conditions. Information about current conditions might include snowpit data.

That's why it might be nice if it were easier to learn how to interpret snow profiles. It is possible that different visualization techniques might help with interpretation. It can be done with maps so I believe it can be done with profiles as well. Just not quite sure how.

[Hugh Conway]

In our case if the user wants more data they can look at avert. I think there are really two different audiences here. The professional or aspiring pro and the recreational cb traveler. With only the former even remotely interested in the amount of data filtering/computer digging involved in something like your SLF example or avert.

That sounds like a fair assessment.

Snowpit profiles are pretty easy to look at. I'd be more interested in software for relational tracking of snowpit data. Snowpits overlaid onto a topomap. Snowpits arranged by time on a topomap. Snowpits vs. nearby weather center data. There may not be enough data points yet for this to be useful but integrating the pits into a larger picture is something perhasp software could be useful for (or perhaps something like this exists and I don't know it)

[CookieMonster]

Something else that interests me is seeing the "area of relevance" for a given snowpit applied to a map. I've heard different theories on the extent of relevance ( i.e. Relevant to nowhere else, relevant to the drainage, relevant to the slope. ) It would be interesting to see this mapped with some interesting visualizations, such as shading the terrain around the snowpit and comparing that information with other pits and avalanche occurrences. Rendering a big picture version of the prior.

One thing that I hadn't seen until this discussion was the idea of using colour coding to present the snowpit data. That certainly would be helpful.

[mikebrom]

Color coding would be interesting. For Example, one could assign colors to corresponding stability perhaps based on Lemons or Yellow Flag scores?