HANOVER, N.H. – When members of a dozen academic and industry research teams gathered late last year in Hanover, New Hampshire, nearly the entirety of Army snow research was all under one roof.
The U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) hosted a snow sciences workshop to advance the understanding of the topics, unique aspects, and elements in common among Army-funded snow research contracts. Special emphasis was placed on why the Army cares about snow, what impacts it has on Warfighter functions and operational planning and how the Army may operate in the future.
“This was an important activity to reiterate Army and ERDC research priorities related to snow, re-establish how each group’s efforts are integrated into this vision, and identify opportunities for contractors to leverage activities within their respective activities,” said Dr. Eli Deeb, a CRREL physical scientist and workshop organizer.
In other words, said Deeb, the research teams learned how their work fits into the “big picture.”
“The researchers were able to clearly envision how their often narrowly focused activities could have more significant impact as they transition their research efforts to the Warfighter,” Deeb explained.
Day one of the two-day workshop consisted of research teams presenting on their respective project tasks and progress. While the updates provided ERDC and CRREL with a “check in,” more importantly, they helped researchers identify opportunities for new lines of scientific inquiry and collaboration amongst teams.
“The UNH team benefitted tremendously from learning about other project teams’ recent and planned research,” said Dr. Jennifer Jacobs, a water resources engineer and surface water hydrologist at the University of New Hampshire. “The successful event was a testament to CRREL’s continued leadership in snow science and advancing collaborations.”
Dr. Joan Ramage, a research project leader from Lehigh University, emphasized the value of her team exploring synergies with other groups – ones they might not otherwise interact with.
For example, Ramage suggested that groups studying mobility at fine mountain slope scales and those working across whole continents could think about how their data could be jointly interpreted.
The second day of the workshop began with an overview of CRREL’s capabilities and mission areas and continued with a tour of the 27-acre laboratory.
“I found it fascinating to be introduced to some of CRREL’s laboratory infrastructure, even beyond what I work on myself,” said Ramage. “The infrastructure for making experimental environments and testing vehicles and equipment in place is unparalleled, and it’s stimulating to think about the research possibilities.”
The workshop concluded with methodology sessions on topics such as remote sensing, unmanned aircraft systems and data analysis, as well as a review of ERDC’s Snow Strategic Science Plan (SSSP), which is currently in the process of being updated.
While the workshop was only two days, the impact of the collaboration between the research teams is expected to be felt well into the future.
“We saw many instances of ‘spontaneous’ identification of opportunities to collaborate, amongst the contractors, between the contractors and CRREL researchers,” said Dr. Bert Davis, CRREL’s senior scientific technical manager and lead author on the upcoming SSSP updates.
According to Davis, a follow-up session will be held this spring or summer to review the research teams’ progress and explore further opportunities for collaboration across organizations.