Snow Monitoring Competence Centre SMCC Davos ¶

The proposal of a Snow Monitoring Competence Centre (SMCC) was developed by the Global Cryosphere Watch (GCW) community. With the integration of the GCW activities under the remit of the WMO Infrastructure Commission (INFCOM), sustaining both the availability of quality snow data and expert knowledge in snow measurement issues benefits from the sustainable framework as a Measurement Lead Centre.

SMCC Davos will serve the community by: 

• Providing expertise concerning in situ and remote measurement practices of key variables like snow depth, bulk snow density, water equivalent of snow cover, depth of snowfall, and of measurements of snow microstructure and macroscopic properties of the snow cover;
• Elaborating measurement guidelines for the different snow variables depending on snow climate and application;
• Defining standards and best practices for snow data quality checks depending on the application the snow data are used for;
• Developing standards and procedures to fill gaps in snow data series; 
• Sharing expertise in homogenization of snow measurements;
• Demonstrating the chances and limits of remote sensing measurements of snow, for example with drones; 
• Supplying infrastructure in long-term investigation fields to test new measurement sensors against reference measurements; 

For a complete description of SMCC see the information document submitted to INFCOM-2 in 2022.

SMCC will not provide individual guidance on data and instruments. However, SMCC may co-organise or participate in workshops aimed at snow measurement techniques and snow data interpretation for scientists, modelling-experts, and practitioners in the framework of capacity building with a companion facility from a developing country. Such workshops may include a visit of SMCC and its facilities.

• Online literature database