Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies

The Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies (CSAS) is an independent, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. CSAS and its 720 acre, alpine Senator Beck Basin Study Area (SBB) was established in 2003 to foster new research on mountain snowpack processes and to monitor for and detect climate-driven and other changes in regional mountain snow systems. SBB is located in a critically wet and cold portion of the Colorado River Basin (CRB) in the western San Juan Mountains, the first major mountain system downwind of the desert Southwest and Colorado Plateau, is well situated to enable monitoring and understanding of Upper CRB warming, drought, changes in precipitation phase, and other emerging processes such as dust-on-snow. Climate change researchers around the world have recognized mountains as a sensitive bellwether of global and regional change, where system responses may be more transparent and perhaps quicker than in lower elevation settings. Four continuously operating monitoring stations, including a stream gauging station, are operated by CSAS at SBB. Year-round automated measurements are complemented by other manual measurements.