Snow Coverage on Mount Rainier: 2001 vs. 2021

Jessie Woldstad, Geography: Data Science

Using satellite data from USGS's GloVis, I compared Mount Rainier's snow coverage during the year of 2001 to 2021. Something I was particularly interested in exploring was the impact of 2021's record-breaking temperatures on Mount Rainier's snow pack and comparing it to a year that was absent of such weather anomalies (2001). In order to conduct this analysis, I retrieved 24 different satellite images from each month of the year (12) over the course of 2001 and 2021. Additionally, I devised a way to convert the raster data (satellite imagery) into vector shapefiles. With these shapefiles, I calculated the change in snow area from month-to-month and was able to make some interesting geospatial visualizations. Although there are many important caveats to address with my analysis, I hope that I can share my findings and what I learned along the way in this symposium.