Information about the water contained in snow and its properties is of vital importance to multiple sectors. Whether for hydropower, for flood and avalanche warnings, or for general water resource management – this information holds the key to some fairly critical forecasting. Now a new service is taking the snow community by storm…

SnowSense is a Snow and Runoff Information Service created by Munich-based VISTA Remote Sensing in Geosciences GmbH, with the support of ESA’s Business Applications Programme.

The solution, initially designed to help hydrologists working in remote and seasonally inaccessible areas with limited infrastructure or communication, integrates three space assets: Earth Observation, Global Navigation Systems and Satellite Communication.

“With SnowSense all three space components demonstrate their excellent potential for solving specific users’ needs for snow monitoring.” Olivier Becu, ESA 

SnowSense provides information on snow cover and the resulting hydrological dynamics, such as snow melt and run-off formation – dynamics which are extremely useful for those in charge of the reliable and safe production of hydropower and flood management. 

“Snow represents both risk and potential;  we are dealing with climate change and flooding…but snow is also energy, irrigation and food security. This the most important topic we’re working on.” Florian Appel, Head of Hydrological Services, VISTA

Snow is traditionally measured in terms of height, but this is of limited use to hydrologists as fresh snow is very light and over time it becomes compressed. The usefulinformation is what’s inside the snow cover and ultimately what will melt at the end of the season.

“The water stored in snow cover is known as the Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) and it’s the most relevant parameter,” explains Amir Ali Khan, Manager at the Water Resources Management Division of the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, where the SnowSense demonstration took place. “The SWE is currently only measurable by using costly automatic stations or getting out in the field with snow mobiles or helicopters. In remote areas we often simply cannot obtain this information.” 

SnowSense fills a gap in current services by providing spatial and temporal data in high resolution through the application of Earth Observation and modelling. This allows for the creation of spatial SWE maps of regions as well as giving run-off information at specific points of interest for real-time purposes and forecasts.

“One of the key elements in this project is the use of a novel in-situ hardware component,” says Olivier Becu. “Based on GNSS signals, snow properties can be retrieved by an autonomous, easy installable, maintenance-free and low-cost design sensor.”

The utility of the service spans many more fields than hydrology with a broad appeal for governmental and research institutes/universities (weather services, snow physics, avalanches) as well as private and commercial applications.  There are also possible applications in areas such as logistics, transport and insurance. 

“User needs and requirements may differ from the standard SnowSense service, but a synergistic use of the in-situ hardware and the service we’ve developed would be possible,” says Florian Appel, Head of Hydrological Services at VISTA. 

Users and customers for SnowSense are primarily located in North America and Scandinavia, but also in all countries with significant snow cover and dynamics (more than 40 worldwide). 

“Under ESA’s Business Applications programme we have carried out successful demonstrations, patented the technology and installed hardware on the island of Newfoundland and in Quebec, with snow stations now operational in Germany and Switzerland. There is widespread interest for this service among the snow community – in fact we had sales and contracts established before the end of the project,” adds Appel.

With the first devices now sold in Europe and orders from key customers on the way, VISTA are now having discussions to establish a development partnership for the next-generation SnowSense Sensors. 

The city of Torino and the European Space Agency (ESA) have signed a Memorandum of Intent (MOI) with the aim to support the development of services for smart cities, based on the utilisation of space assets such as GNSS, Earth Observation and Satellite communication, integrated with 5G networks.  

Following the MOIs already signed by ESA with Roma Capitale (the city of Rome) and the city of L’Aquila, Abruzzo Region and the University of L’ Aquila, the Memorandum signed with Torino municipality enriches an initiative, which is unique in its kind. The local authorities will provide requirements and needs for the development of the serviceswith a focus on four domains: law enforcement and emergency response, intelligent transport, cultural heritage and structural health monitoring. The local authorities will also provide links to their partners in the telecommunications sector and access to infrastructure or other assets to support the resulting studies and projects, which must in turn deliver innovation and socio-economic benefits for the local communities. 

The purpose of the Torino administration is to foster the development of innovative and high social impact applications in the urban context, while at the same time creating new opportunities for citizens and industry and establishing relations with international organisations and research centres. 

In the frame of the present cooperation, the Torino municipality will make available their own competencies as well as assets from the “Torino City Lab” project. Torino is keen to host experimentations and development of new solutions involving the existing aerospace ecosystem and new industrial actors. 

Companies based in ESA member states will be invited to develop application solutions based on the integration of space assets and 5G to meet the needs and requirements of user communities in one of the most ancient cities in the world. The municipality needs in domains such as law enforcement and emergency response and cultural heritage will be the driver for the development and demonstration of space and 5G based services which present a strong potential to become commercially viable in the short term.

“The Torino ecosystem, which has always been a leader in the innovation sector as well its expertise and know-how, is growing. The purpose of the present collaboration is to promote and to support the aerospace industry domain where Torino has always excelled. Torino is an ideal environment where new services based on the utilisation of space technologies can be created, developed and tested. These services can have not only an economic but also a social impact for the city. It is expected that such innovative experimentations will expand also at national level.” 

We have a unique opportunity to create new models of cities capable of seizing the opportunities that we recognize today, through the exploitation of latest-generation technologies", explains the Innovation Chancellor Marco Pironti. “The present collaboration fits and contributes to the vision we have for our city: each PA has the role to support their own ecosystem, strengthening it and helping it grow; establishing new cooperation and enhancing competencies from an economic, technological, social and ethic point of view.” 

“In the frame of the European Space Agency 5G initiative, we are enthusiastic that Torino has joined other smart cities/regions in Italy and Europe in an initiative that is placing them amongst the pioneers of space-based 5G services”, commented Rita Rinaldo, Head of Institutional Applications Projects in the ESA Business Applications Programme.

 “We are pleased to offer, thanks to the agreement signed with Torino, the opportunity to companies to implement pilots in the city. The projects will demonstrate the advantages which space technologies integrated with 5G can bring to citizens in domains such as security, cultural heritage and mobility”.  

The cooperation will be announced on 25th October in Torino, in the presence of the Italian Minister of Innovation Paola Pisano, Torino Mayor Chiara Appendino and ESA and ASI representatives.