Recording Observations

How to Record Observations in the Snow Scope App

Video Overview of Observation Recording

Recording snow observations is the core functionality of the Snow Scope App. To Create an Observation:

1. Tap the "+" button on the home page

2. Select your observation type

3. Record details of your observation

4. Tap "Submit"

Observation Types

You can record the following observation types. Click on the link for more info on each

• Snow Profile

• Cracking and Collapsing

• Quick Test Results

• Snow Height

• Voice generated obs

Editing Observations

Once you submit an observation, you can always go back and edit it. To do this:

1. Open up the Observation

2. Tap "Edit"

3. Make Changes to your observation, they will be autosaved

4. Tap "Lock" to disable editing mode

Drafts

As you create a Snow Profile, your information is autosaved. That way, if your phone dies during recording, your information will still be saved. This will show up as a "draft" profile. Editing a draft profile works the same way as a submitted observation, but will require you to tap submit after editing instead of "lock". Draft profiles are only visible to you, and you'll need to enable the "drafts" filter to see them (see viewing observations for more detail).

You can also save an in progress profile as a draft if you aren't quite ready to share it by tapping the back button in the profile creator view and tapping "save as draft"

General Observation Fields

In all observation types, you'll have a few fields that allow you to add supplemental information to the observation. Some of these fields include:

• Profile Name - A name for the observation - often a location name.

• Observation Time - when the observation was observed in the field

• Observing on behalf of - if you are associated with one or more organization, this allows you to select which organization you want associated with this observation

• Observation Privacy - who can see your observation. learn more about privacy here

• Location - where the observation was. this is autogenerated from your GPS location, but you can change it manually by tapping "edit location"

• Aspect, Elevation, Slope - information about the observation location. Currently, elevation is autopopulated from GPS, but aspect and slope are not. In the future these will have an option to autopopulate.

• Ski and Foot Penetration

• Surface Grain - the snow grain type on the surface of the snowpack

• Practice Pit/Observation - check this box if you are just testing out the app and the observation does not match reality

• Audio Notes - this is the little microphone icon - it lets you record an audio note to associate with your observation. audio notes are only viewable by the creator.