Mechanical stability indicators derived from detailed snow cover simulations

摘要: The use of numerical modeling of the snow cover in support of avalanche hazard forecasting has been increasing in the last decade. Besides field observations and numerical weather forecasting, these numerical tools provide information otherwise unavailable on the present and future state of the snow cover. In order to provide useful input for avalanche hazard assessment, different mechanical stability indicators are typically computed from simulated snow stratigraphy. Such indicators condense the wealth of information produced by snow cover models, especially when dealing with large data (eg, large domains, high spatial resolution, ensemble forecasting). Here, we provide an overview of such indicators. Mechanical stability indicators can be classified in two types ie, whether they are solely based on mechanical rules or whether they include additional expert rules. These indicators span different mechanical …