ASO
Airborne Snow Observatory

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