At 4:30 a.m. on a recent Wednesday, three alpine scientists arose from fitful sleep in a chilly research lab in the Colorado mountains. … They had a satellite to meet. … The satellite, known as NISAR, was launched last summer by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Indian Space Research Organization. The satellite’s capabilities are the closest humans have come to measuring water content in snow across vast regions, from space, the holy grail of snow science. The new technology comes at a critical time. As the world warms, snow is vanishing across many parts of the planet. That includes Western United States, which is currently undergoing a record snow drought.

Other snowpack news:

• CNN: Before and after satellite images show how little snow is left in the western US
• San Francisco Chronicle: Tahoe’s largest ski resort to close early as heat wave melts Sierra snowpack
• KOAA (Colorado Springs, Colo.): Colorado snowpack plummets over two and a half inches in a single week
• Denver Gazette (Colo.): Rapid snowmelt after some Colorado regions hit snowpack peak as early as February this year
• Arizona State University: Blog: ASU-SRP snow surveys show much of Arizona’s headwater snowpack melted in weeks
• The Conversation: Blog: What the historic snow drought means for water, wildfires and the future of the West