Throughout the winter, avalanche forecasters issue bulletins to help the public and the managers of public facilities make avalanche safety decisions. These bulletins typically describe important snowpack features and current weather events before rating the avalanche danger on a scale of one through five. Although the character of avalanche conditions may vary between regions, the physical pro...

Knowledge on the spatial and temporal distribution of snow depth is one of the key parameter in the assessment of avalanche hazards, for snow drift and avalanche modelling and model verification. Reliable measurements of snow depth distribution are of interest for practitioners as well as for scientists. Most of the conventional methods like snow pits, probing or profiling deliver point informa...

In this article I examine how and why disability was defined and statistically quantified by China's party-state in the late 1980s. I describe the unfolding of a particular epidemiological undertaking--China's 1987 National Sample Survey of Disabled Persons--as well as the ways the survey was an extension of what Ian Hacking has called modernity's "avalanche of numbers." I argue that, to a larg...

Today, temporary measures to improve avalanche safety often depend on remote measurements by automatic stations. The snow profile radar allows for direct measurements of snow accumulation, settling, fracture height and water percolation within avalanche release zones. Alarm stations automatically recognize avalanche flow and close traffic lines. Remote avalanche control by Wyssen exploders, pro...

Single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are primary devices in photon counting systems used in quantum cryptography, time resolved spectroscopy and photon counting optical communication. SPADs convert each photo-generated electron hole pair to a measurable current via an avalanche of impact ionizations. In this paper, a stochastically self-regulating avalanche model for passively quenched SPADs ...

Based on the synergetic approach, the theory of a single avalanche formation is presented for the simplest sandpile model. The stationary values of sand velocity, slope and avalanche intensity are derived as functions of control parameter (externally driven sandpile tilt). The statistical ensemble of avalanche intensities is considered to investigate diffusion in ultrametric space of hierarchic...

The main problems of mechanics of snow avalanches are those of: (1) predicting avalanches, (2) avalanche motion, (3) the action of an avalanche upon obstacles, (4) the air wave, (5) the slow moving snow cover and its interaction with protective constructions and (6) the problem of artificial release of avalanches. This paper surveys the modern state of scientific knowledge about the nature of p...

Snow avalanche paths are major geomorphic features in the Rocky Mountains of Glacier National Park, Montana. They are the most common and geographically widespread form of mass-wasting in the central portion of the park. Field work and aerialphoto studies identified over 800 such paths in the study area. Other mass-wasting phenomena are also common. Snow avalanche path directions in the study a...