Abstract:
Snow cover is very important for water resource management. Snow cover maps generated from surface data are prone to interpolation sensors where climate stations are sparsely distributed. Since, visible and infrared sensor systems can easily be hampered by the clouds microwave sensors are the only source, which are least attenuated by the clouds cover, to retrieve the snow data in a timely way. Previous passive microwave studies have shown that only dry snow covers affect naturally up-welling microwave radiation through processes of scattering. However, the new studies demonstrate that scattering characteristics can be identifies for mixed snow packs that contain free liquid water. A method for monitoring snow cover in the UK using special sensor microwave Imager data (SSM/I) imagery is presented. In addition, a simple model that predicts the emissivity values from SSM/I data is used. The results show the feasibility and problems of retrieving snow pack characteristics from space borne microwave radiometry data. The snow cover data sets for the 26 and 27 January 1995 were used for the testing of algorithms. The aims of the research are to model electromagnetic responses from different snow pack types to assist with the explanation of passive microwave signals from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I).
Page(s):
183-188
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: Science International, Volume: 16, Issue: 3, Year: 2004