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Snowfall in Colorado's Rocky Mountains has declined severely in the past two decades, meaning less water to sustain life in the arid region.
在过去的二十年里，科罗拉多州落基山脉的降雪量严重减少，这意味着干旱地区维持生命所需的水资源减少了。
Noah Molotch is a snow researcher at the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research.
诺亚·莫洛奇是科罗拉多大学北极和高山研究所的雪研究员。
In the western united states, 60 million people depend on snow-melt for their water supply and globally it's a little over a billion people.
在美国西部，有6000万人依靠融雪来获得供水，而在全球范围内，这一数字略高于10亿。
Molotch uses remote sensing technology to estimate how much water will become available when snows melt.
莫洛奇使用遥感技术来估计当雪融化时将有多少水可用。
So darker blues represent more snow, lighter blues represent less snow.
深蓝色代表雪多，浅蓝色代表雪少。
Using satellite images computer modeling and on the ground snow surveys, Molotch and his team are improving the accuracy of snow-melt forecasting.
利用卫星图像、计算机建模和地面积雪调查，莫洛奇和他的团队正在提高融雪预测的准确性。
This is critical information for water managers deciding how much water to release from a dam and when to do it.
这是水资源管理者决定从大坝放多少水以及何时放水的关键信息。
When you improve the accuracy of the forecast, then you actually increase the efficiency at which water is allocated, which is basically like introducing more usable water into the system.
当你提高预测的准确性时，你实际上提高了水的分配效率，基本上就像是向系统中引入更多可用的水。
Another innovation is snow mapping from airplanes.
另一项创新是从飞机上绘制雪图。
Developed by NASA, the planes use LiDAR, a type of laser scanner, to measure the earth's surface.
这些飞机由美国宇航局开发，使用的是光雷达来测量地球表面，这是一种激光扫描仪。
If you take the height that you measured in summer and subtract it from the height that you measured in winter that gives you a direct measurement of the snow depth.
如果用夏天测得的高度减去冬天测得的高度就能直接测量出雪的深度。
Measuring snow manually still provides essential data because water density varies greatly in snow but these surveys are limited by the number of sites that teams can visit.
由于雪中的水密度变化很大，人工测量雪仍然可以提供必要的数据，但这些调查受到团队可以访问的站点数量的限制。
Adding the remote sensing data creates a far more complete picture as climate change disrupts established patterns.
由于气候变化破坏了既定的模式，加上遥感数据才能形成一个更完整的画面。
Accurately predicting water availability from snow will become more important to meet the needs of the many people who depend on it.
为了满足许多依赖雪的人的需求，准确地预测雪中的水分供应将变得更加重要。
Matt Dibble for VOA news, boulder, Colorado.
VOA新闻，马特·迪布尔于科罗拉多州博尔德报道。
