Optimizing Over Summer Snow Storage at the Craftsbury Outdoors Center, Craftsbury, VT
Weiss, Hannah
Weiss, Hannah
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Abstract
Climate change forces the ski industry to modify snow-making strategies. Over-summer snow storage is an adaptation successfully employed by high-elevation and/or high-latitude ski centers in Europe, Canada, and Asia. The process involves stockpiling winter snow and storing it beneath insulation (e.g., wood chips) through summer. Current methods are empirically-based with few studies quantifying snowmelt through summer or comparing insulation strategies. Here, we evaluate feasibility of over-summer snow storage at a nordic ski center in northeastern America. Soil temperatures were recorded since June 2017 with sensors 5, 20, 50 cm and 1 m below ground surface. In March 2018, two, 200 m3 snow piles were covered in plastic and wood chips and monitored bi-weekly through the melt season using terrestrial LiDAR. Using data-logged thermistor arrays, we measured air-to-snow temperature gradients under various insulation materials: rigid foam, open cell foam, and wet wood chips, with/without reflective coverings and with/without an underlying insulating blanket. Over the summer, volume changed similarly between the two piles (1-2 m3/day) and density changed little (0.6-0.7 g/cm3); most volume reduction was the result of melting. Optimal insulation was an insulating blanket beneath 20 cm of wet wood chips covered with a reflective tarp; only this configuration maintained temperature above the snow surface at or near freezing even though air temperature was > 30C. There was no diurnal variation, indicating that wood chips effectively buffered thermal swings. All other insulation strategies resulted in higher over snow temperatures that changed diurnally.
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11:10 AM
11:00am-1:00pm
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11:00am-1:00pm
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Date
2019-01-01