SNAPS - Snow, Ice and Avalanche Applications

The SNAPS project focuses on snow and avalanche services for transport infrastructure in selected areas within the Northern Periphery in Iceland, Norway, Sweden and Finland. The main tasks of the project are: development of near-real time snow cover maps with remote sensing, and avalanche and snow-drift forecasts. The focus in the project is on selected target roads where the forecasts will be implemented. The main avalanche forecasting tools that will be developed are of two types: 1) A statistical analysis on weather and avalanche data is performed. The result will be in the form of likelihood of avalanches reaching the road given certain weather conditions. 2) Snow models are being tested and improved. Results from the HARMONIE high resolution numerical weather prediction model is used as an input to the Crocus snow model. Experiments are being made using the snow cover maps in the process. An important part of the project is the implementation of information to road users. Groups of road users are created in each target area which receive updates on the project and help develop methods of giving road users information. In Iceland, road users have the possibility of signing up for a test product where information on different levels of avalanche danger and possible upcoming danger are given by text messages in mobile phones.