We headed over to Queenstown for some fieldwork on the Remarkables ski field and in Wye creek. We also met with members of the NZ Ski operations team to see if we could make use of snow depth data that their grooming machines collect each night. We also went for a night ski at Coronet Peak which was a great team bonding exercise!
We headed up the Remarkables bright and early to collect ground control points to help validate the elevation models we derive via SPM from Pleiades imagery tasked the week prior. We can also use this data to better understand snow depth measurements derived from SPM and the GPS units on the grooming machines. Moving through snow covered terrain made it most convenient for us to collect the positional data on skis! The skiiers (Aubrey, Charlie, and Ellorine) wore the GPS units on their backs while the snowboarders (Pascal and Todd) made sure expensive equipment wasn't dropped along the way. We collected profiles along some of the groomed runs on the ski field and then collected long transects in the Wye creek backcountry area.
