Simon Horton – Research Associate

  • Ph. D. 2015

    Civil Engineering

    University of Calgary

  • Diploma 2011

    Meteorology

    University of British Columbia

  • B. A. Sc. 2008

    Engineering Physics

    Queen's University

You can reach Simon at simon_horton@sfu.ca.

Meet Simon

Simon grew up in Ontario playing hockey, canoeing, and obsessed with drawing maps. After moving out west, his passions shifted to mountain sports and he came upon a fortunate opportunity to learn about snow and avalanches from Bruce Jamieson at the University of Calgary. He currently work as the research officer and a senior forecaster at Avalanche Canada and continues his research as an associate with SFU. He is thankful for the many great mentors and opportunities he has had up to this point, and hopes to apply his research to benefit everyone who works and plays in the mountains.

Simon's research

Simon’s research focuses on understanding patterns in weather, snowpack, and avalanche conditions. Despite the complexity and variability across the vast mountains of Canada, there are also broad patterns that span across ranges. By working with numerical weather and snowpack models, as well as field observations, Simon’s goal is to help draw out these patterns to help forecasters understand avalanche hazards. In recent years, he has been excited to see this research gradually be adopted by avalanche practitioners.

Simon’s publications at SARP

Adopting snowpack models into an operational forecasting program: Successes, challenges, and future outlook

Conference Paper - ISSWHazard Assessment
Simon Horton, Pascal Haegeli, Karl Klassen, James Floyer, and Grant Helgeson
Proceedings of the 2023 International Snow Science Workshop in Bend, Oregon
Publication year: 2023

Is it a problem? Takeaways from research into the use an effectiveness of avalanche problems

Conference Paper - ISSWHazard Assessment
Simon Horton, Pascal Haegeli, Grant Statham, Bret Shandro, Taylor Clark, Stan Nowak, Moses Towell, Heather Hordowick, and Florian Herla
Proceedings of the 2023 International Snow Science Workshop in Bend, Oregon
Publication year: 2023

A large-scale validation of snowpack simulations in support of avalanche forecasting focusing on critical layers

Hazard AssessmentJournal PaperUnder public review
Florian Herla, Pascal Haegeli, Simon Horton, and Patrick Mair
EGUsphere [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-420
Publication year: 2023

Using snow depth observation to provide insight into the quality of regional-scale snowpack simulations for avalanche forecasting

Hazard AssessmentJournal Paper
Simon Horton and Pascal Haegeli
The Cryosphere, 16, 3393–3411, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-16-3393-2022
Publication year: 2022

Examining the operational use of avalanche problems with decision trees and model-generated weather and snowpack variables

Hazard AssessmentJournal Paper
Simon Horton, Moses Towell, and Pascal Haegeli
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 3551–3576, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-3551-2020
Publication year: 2020

Snow profile alignment and similarity assessment for aggregating, clustering, and evaluating of snowpack model output for avalanche forecasting

Hazard AssessmentJournal Paper
Florian Herla, Simon Horton, Patrick Mair, and Pascal Haegeli
Geoscientific Model Development, 14, 239–258, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-239-2021
Publication year: 2021

Enhancing the operational value of snowpack models with visualization design principles

Hazard AssessmentJournal Paper
Simon Horton, Stanislaw Nowak, and Pascal Haegeli
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1557–1572, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-1557-2020, 2020.
Publication year: 2020

Click here for a full listing of SARP publications.

Simon’s software packages

sarp.snowprofile.alignment: Snow Profile Alignment, Aggregation, and Clustering

Hazard AssessmentSoftware
Florian Herla, Simon Horton, Pascal Haegeli, and Paul Billecocq
R package version 1.2.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=sarp.snowprofile.alignment
Publication year: 2020

sarp.snowprofile: Snow Profile Analysis for Snowpack and Avalanche Research

Hazard AssessmentSoftware
Pascal Haegeli, Simon Horton, and Florian Herla
R package version 1.2.1. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=sarp.snowprofile
Publication year: 2020

Click here for a full listing of SARP software packages.

Simon’s research presentation videos

Simon Horton & Pascal Haegeli
Research on avalanche problems: Where do we go next to improve hazard assessments?
2023 CAA Spring Meetings

Simon Horton, Florian Herla & Pascal Haegeli
Dynamically aggregating avalanche forecast regions based on simulated snow profiles
2022 AGU Fall Meeting

Simon Horton & Florian Herla
Latest advances in snowpack modelling—Operational forecasting tools and the research behind them
2022 CAA Spring Meetings

Simon Horton
Anticipating persistent problems in coastal areas – Lessons from operational snowpack modelling this season
2021 CAA Spring Meetings

Simon Horton
Snow modeling 101 and applications for practitioners
2020 CSAW

Simon Horton
Snow modeling 101 and applications for practitioners – Question period
2020 CSAW

Simon Horton
What if you could dig two thousand pits a day?
2019 CAA Spring Meetings

Simon Horton
Will computers forecast avalanches? Steps towards automated hazard assessments
2018 CAA Spring Meetings

Click here to view all SARP presentation videos.