ASO
Airborne Snow Observatory

The Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) is an airborne system of remote sensing instruments used to measure snow properties such as snow albedo, snow depth, and snow water equivalent. ASO includes a CASI 1500 imaging spectrometer and a Riegl Q1560 scanning lidar. The CASI spectrometer operates across the 380-1050 nm range and is employed to retrieve spectral albedo. The Riegl Q1560 lidar functions at the 1064 nm wavelength and measures surface elevation to determine snow depths. Snow depth measurements are provided at spatial resolutions of 3m and 50m, while snow water equivalent measurements are available only at a 50m resolution.