CEE Seminar: Toward the Estimation of Global Snow-Derived Water Resources

Abstract: Mountain snowpacks serve as a vital seasonal water reservoir for many downstream ecosystems and human populations. Despite its importance, characterizing the amount of water stored in snowpacks and how it varies over space and time has largely eluded hydrologists. In this talk, I will cover a survey of work in our group years aimed at characterizing mountain snow. A unifying theme is the use of data assimilation to tie together remote sensing observations and hydrologic models. The talk will highlight some ideas using existing spaceborne measurement techniques and those expected to be available in the future.

Bio: Margulis graduated with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from USC (1996) and received an master's degree and doctorate in civil and environmental engineering (in 1998 and 2002 respectively) with an emphasis on hydrology. His doctoral topic focused on warm-season land-atmosphere interactions and hydrologic data assimilation. Margulis joined the UCLA Civil and Environmental Engineering Department in 2002 where he has been since and currently serves as department chair. Early in his career at UCLA, he switched gears in his research from warm-season processes to cold-season processes where he has been learning about snow processes ever since.