Boulder team wins international prize for water resource research using GPS data stations

By: InnovatioNews Wednesday October 29, 2014 0 comments Tags: Boulder, CU-Boulder, Eric Small, John Braun, Kristine Larson, NASA, NOAA, NSF, UCAR, Valery Zavorotny

 


BOULDER - A Boulder research team has been recognized with one of the world's most prestigious awards for innovations related to water resources.

The team - comprised of members from CU-Boulder, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - has worked together for five years to develop a way to use GPS technology to measure soil moisture, snow depth and vegetation water content.

Their work won a 2014 Creativity Prize from the Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water.

"It's an honor to be recognized by the broader international science community," said John Braun, UCAR scientists, GPS expert and member of the research team.

"This work can significantly improve how we measure changes in a number of key components of the water cycle."

The team - which included Kristine Larson and Eric Small at CU-Boulder and Valery Zavorotny at NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory - developed a new observational technique that takes advantage of data from more than 10,000 GPS stations around the globe.

The research project was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA.