The main objective of the PROSNOW project, a three-year Horizon 2020 project funded by the EU, is to build a demonstrator of a meteorological and climate prediction system with a period that ranges from one week to several months. The system will be developed for snow management, specifically tailored to the needs of the ski industry and by using a co-design approach, which will involve scientists and stakeholders. PROSNOW will start applying state-of-the-art knowledge relevant to the predictability of atmospheric and snow conditions, then develop products well beyond state-of-the-art operational tools. The improved anticipation capabilities will span from “weather forecast” (up to 5 days typically) to “climate prediction” at the seasonal scale (up to several months). The prediction capabilities will be based on the integration of weather and seasonal prediction products, together with snowpack models, in-situ and remotely-sensed observations. The project addresses areas located in different countries such as France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Italy. It will associate research institutions for weather forecasts, climate predictions at the seasonal scale and snowpack modeling, a group of providers proposing high tech solutions for snow monitoring and management, and a relevant ensemble of eight representative resorts in the Alps. As final output of the project, the benefit of such services for ski resorts will be investigated in the direction of a possible commercial exploitation of the service.

This project supports the integration of Earth observation data with snowpack modelling and the exploitation of such innovative techniques in the context of climate services.

EURAC will generate Earth Observation data necessary for testing the modeling in hindcast mode over the different ski areas. EURAC will also take care of data collection from the different ski areas and the deployment, exploitation and technical evaluation of the demonstrator in the ski areas located in South Tyrol (Italy).

Contact person: Carlo Marin, Claudia Notarnicola

carlo.marin@eurac.edu, claudia.notarnicola@eurac.edu