Simulation of snow management in Alpine ski resorts using three different snow models

International audienceSnow management, i. e., snowmaking and grooming, is an integral part of modern ski resort management. While the current snow cover distribution on the slopes is often well known thanks to the usage of advanced monitoring techniques, information about its future evolution is usually lacking. Management-enabled numerical snowpack models driven by meteorological forecasts can help to fill this gap.In the frame of the H2020 project PROSNOW, the snowpack models AMUNDSEN, Crocus, and SNOWPACK/Alpine3D are applied in nine pilot ski resorts across the European Alps for forecasting snow conditions in time scales from days to several months ahead. We present the integration of detailed snowmaking and grooming practices implemented in the three models and show how they can be adapted to individual ski resorts. An ensemble of snow management configurations accounting for a comprehensive set of possible tactical and strategic operational choices is introduced, along with an approach to homogeneously spatialize the results of the three snow models over different areas of the ski resorts. First simulation results are presented for the nine pilot ski resorts in the form of distributed snow water equivalent (SWE) maps along with SWE and snow depth time series for two selected seasons in the past