HR: 14:00h
AN: C42B-02    [PDF]
TI: Airborne Measurements of Snow Cover Properties During the Cold Land Processes Experiments (CLPX02/03) Using the Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR)
AU: * Stankov, B B
EM: B.Boba.Stankov@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
AU: Gasiewski, A J
EM: Al.Gasiewski@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
AU: Weber, B L
EM: Bob.L.Weber@noaa.gov
AF: Science and Technology Corporation and NOAA/ETL, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
AU: Klein, M
EM: Marian.Klein@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA/ETL - University of Colorado CIRES, 325 broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
AU: Kelly, R
EM: rkelly@glacier.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Hydrological Sciences Branch,Code 974, Building 33, Room A119, Greenbelt, MD 20771
AU: Cline, D
EM: cline@nohrsc.nws.gov
AF: National Operational Hydrologic Remote Sensing Center, 1735 Lake Drive West, Chanhassen, MI 55317
AU: Wick, G A
EM: Gary.A.Wick@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305
AB: The Cold Land Processes Experiment (CLPX) is a NASA-funded multi-year experiment to study remote sensing of winter snow pack properties on the Colorado side of the Rocky Mountains. The purposes of CLPX are to improve the estimation of snow amount and forecasting of spring flooding due to snowmelt, and to study the role of the cryosphere on the Earth's climate. Cold land regions form an important component of the Earth's hydrologic cycle, and interact significantly with water resources, global weather, and climate. Multispectral polarimetric microwave brightness temperature maps of snowpack in the Colorado Rocky Mountains were obtained using the NOAA Polarimetric Scanning Radiometer (PSR) during three CLPX missions in February 2002, February 2003, and March 2003. The PSR CLPX data offers unique high-resolution information about snow extent, polarimetric emissivity, and snow water equivalent at scales commensurate with natural inhomogeneities in terrain, vegetation cover, and precipitation patterns. The current PSR/A system includes a scanhead capable of providing imagery at most of the AMSR-E imaging bands. During February-March, 2002 the PSR/A scanhead was flown on the NASA DC-8 aircraft (N717NA) and during the two February-March, 2003 missions the PSR/A was flown on NASA P-3 aircraft. The PSR/A was operated in conical scanning mode at low altitude (~2km AGL) to provide multiband microwave imagery over dry mid-season snow and during the onset of snow melt in Colorado with spatial resolution of 140/500 m for high and low frequencies respectively. We present multiband polarimetric snow microwave images over the three CLPX mesocell study areas (MSAs) in the AMSR-E bands. We relate the microwave brightness temperature to the physical snowpack quantities such as snow water equivalent (SWE). Comparisons of the PSR/A-derived SWE with the in situ measurements, gamma observations, and AMSR-E measurements are presented. In addition, we show that the brightness temperature associated microwave emissivity variations are up to 20-25%.
UR: http://www.etl.noaa.gov/data/psr/clpx03/
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (1827)
SC: Cryosphere [C]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting