Snowpack is an accumulation of snow that compresses with time and melts seasonally, often at high elevation or high latitude. Snowpacks are an important water resource that feed streams and rivers as they melt, sometimes leading to flooding. Snowpacks provide water to down-slope communities for drinking and agriculture. High-latitude or high-elevation snowpacks contribute mass to glaciers in their accumulation zones, where annual snow deposition exceeds annual melting.
Assessing the formation and stability of snowpacks is important in the study and prediction of avalanches. Scientists study the physical properties of snow under different conditions and their evolution, and more specifically snow metamorphism, snow hydrology (that is, the contribution of snow melt to catchment hydrology), the evolution of snow cover with climate change and its effect on the ice–albedo feedback and hydrology, both on the ground and by using remote sensing. Snow is also studied in a more global context of impact on animal habitats and plant succession. An important effort is put into snow classification, both as a hydrometeor and on the ground.
Scientific applications
Snowpack modeling is done for snow stability, flood forecasting, water resource management, and climate studies. Snowpack modeling is either done by simple, statistical methods such as degree day or complex, physically based energy balance models such as SNOWPACK, CROCUS or SNOWMODEL.