Snow hydrology is a scientific study in the field of hydrology which focuses on the composition, dispersion, and movement of snow and ice. Studies of snow hydrology predate the Anno Domini era, although major breakthroughs were not made until the mid eighteenth century.
Snowfall, accumulation and melt are important hydrological processes in watersheds at high altitudes or latitudes. In many western states in the United States, snow melt accounts for a large percentage of the spring runoff that serves as water supply to reservoirs, urban populations and agricultural activities.[1]
A large portion of snow hydrology groups are pursuing new methods for incorporating snow hydrology into distributed models over complex terrain through theoretical developments, model development and testing with field and remote sensing data sets. Snow hydrology is quite complex and involves both mass and energy balance calculations over a time-varying snow pack which is influenced by spatial location in the watershed, interaction with vegetation and redistribution by winds. Some researchers seek to accurately capture snow dynamics at a point and over a domain as the spatial pattern of snow cover area is readily observable from remote sensing.[2]