TITLE:
Snow Cover Area Estimation Using Radar and Optical Satellite Information
AUTHORS:
Ana Paula Salcedo, Marisa G. Cogliati
KEYWORDS:
Radar, Satellite, Snow, Surface Temperature
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.4 No.4,
September
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: Obtaining the seasonal
variation of snow cover in areas of the Argentinian Andes is important for hydrological
studies and can facilitate proper planning of water resources, with regard to irrigation,
supply, flood attenuation and hydroelectricity. Remote sensors that work in the
visible and infrared wavelength range are operational tools for monitoring the snow
in clear skies. However, microwave satellites are able to obtain data regardless
of atmospheric conditions. The advantage of using radar images is that they are
very useful to obtain highly accurate parameters such as snow moisture depth, density
and water equivalent resulting in improved forecasting models. In this paper, we
analyze an ERS-2 image of the Andes mountain range in the northern region of the
Neuquén province, Patagonia, Argentina. The objective was to obtain the spatial
distribution of wet and dry snow and to compare these results with data from optical
sensors (LANDSAT) in order to understand the topographic variables that influence
the spatial distribution of wet snow. Optical information from sensors like LANDSAT
TM 5 was analyzed to obtain fractional and binary snow indexes during a passage
simultaneously with radar data. Surface temperature is used to study the association
between the different types of snow altitudinal ranges and surface temperature.
In this paper, we selected a scene on October 8th 2005. The entire methodology was
systematized in a code implemented in IDL language.