“Mapping snow cover with these airborne technologies is a first of its kind for the state of Arizona,” said Vivoni, also with the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. “We are excited about using snow maps in forested regions of the Salt River to improve runoff forecasts and train algorithms that apply artificial intelligence.”

The data collected during the flights will be analyzed and used to test hydrologic forecasting models developed by ASU Professor Enrique Vivoni with the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. Vivoni is the primary investigator for the joint project.

“Mapping snow cover with these airborne technologies is a first of its kind for the state of Arizona,” said Vivoni, also with the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative in the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Futures Laboratory. “We are excited about using snow maps in forested regions of the Salt River to improve runoff forecasts and train algorithms that apply artificial intelligence.”

This advanced technology will be used for the first time in Arizona. On January 21, the first flight will depart Safford for a 5-6 hour flight over northeastern Arizona. Depending on the weather, the two remaining flights will be scheduled over the next two months.

Enrique Vivoni, a Fulton Professor of Hydrosystems Engineering at ASU, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss how this study will impact the Phoenix water supply.

“What we’re talking about is the rules for operating the Colorado River system,” Sarah Porter, Director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy, said. “Any change in how that system is operating requires review under NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act). What the feds released was a very thorough analysis of how a series of different options would work.”

"Students at ASU and researchers there— they’re going to take the outputs of the snow mapping that the aircraft is doing, to improve the predictions of the amount of water coming into the reservoir," said Professor Enrique Vivoni of the ASU School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. "So that we know ahead of time, weeks ahead, what's the water supply in the Valley we have for use later on this year."

AirJoule Technologies Corporation (NASDAQ: AIRJ), today announced the successful delivery and commissioning of an AirJouleTM A250TM system at Arizona State University. The system will undergo independent academic evaluation, including peer reviewed published research, as part of a collaboration with ASU’s atmospheric water harvesting research program.

Cynthia Campbell can walk four blocks north and be in the middle of a long water canal that carries Colorado River water to Phoenix. When she turns on her faucet, the water that comes out is almost exclusively from the river.

And as a long-time water expert, she can’t stop thinking about the possibility outlined in a new federal report that, someday, that water might not come.

“It’s a very real thing from my perspective,” said Campbell, director of policy innovation for the Arizona Water Innovation Institute at Arizona State University.

Thursday marks the kickoff of the third annual International Atmospheric Water Harvesting Summit, hosted at Arizona State University.

Atmospheric water harvesting is an intriguing new frontier in water science. The idea is relatively simple: in addition to harvesting from rivers and recycling groundwater, what if we could tap into the water reserves floating in the air around us?

"We are losing time. And time is very important in this conversation because probably the most critical or unsettling, dire aspect of all of what we're talking about is the one thing that no one can negotiate, and that's Mother Nature," said Cynthia Campbell, ASU director of water policy innovation.