TITLE:
Fractional Snow/Non-Snow Cover Mapping through Incorporation of Thermal Band in Snow Index Design
AUTHORS:
B. C. Yadav, Kamal Jain
KEYWORDS:
NDSI, S3, Fractional Snow Mapping
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Geosciences,
Vol.8 No.11,
November
30,
2017
ABSTRACT: Substantial development has been achieved in snow cover delineations
through binary mapping techniques. Continuous efforts for development and
institution of methodologies in fractional snow cover mapping are steadily
conducted by the research communities. In this work, the attempts are driven
towards the attainment of the same. MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer) images are worked upon Landsat 8 images under multivariate
polynomial regression schemes utilizing corresponding count of pixels in
a test region of Himachal Pradesh. 11.00 μm centered waveband is employed
to develop a scheme for snow mapping followed by a qualitative and quantitative
comparison with NDSI and S3 snow index where the values of correlation
coefficient between fractional snow cover and index values have been obtained
as 77.04%, 78.82% and 85.15% for NDSI, S3 and our scheme respectively.
Exponential empirical relationships have been tried to be employed to
attain improvements in prediction of snow cover followed by a test of correlation
between true and theoretical fractional snow cover values. An improvement
in degree of correlation is obtained over the conventional methodologies
which serves for the verification of scheme employed and empirical relationship
defined, collectively. The results provide a scope for improvements and
investigations in the subject of fractional snow cover mapping.