A SAMPLING SCHEME FOR SHALLOW SNOWPACKS

ABSTRACT A hydrological sampling scheme should satisfy the purpose for which the samples are being collected, allowing for the variability of the samples in time and space. Snow measurements are commonly taken to provide estimates of the mean water equivalent over an area. A criterion for selecting a snow sampling scheme for shallow snowpacks is expressed in terms of the standard error of the mean water equivalent as a function of the means, variances, and sample sizes of snow depth and snow density. Analysis of data from the Blue Springs Representative Basin, Ontario, Canada, reveals relatively minor increases in the standard error term as the number of snow density samples is greatly reduced.