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In this study, differences in the spatial organization and scale invariance properties of snow depth between a forested environment and an alpine environment are studied. The analysis is based on estimates of the probability distribution function, two-dimensional correlation functions and power spectral densities of high-resolution LIDAR measurements (~ 1 m) obtained for two adjacent study areas of 500 mx 500 m located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Both of the areas are located in the Alpine ISA of NASA's Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) and present similar topographic characteristics (eg, slope and aspect), limiting the differences to vegetation characteristics and the influence of snow redistribution by wind. Furthermore, Fourier filtering techniques and the Turning Bands Method are used for generating synthetic one-dimensional profiles, and isotropic and anisotropic two-dimensional random fields …