HR: 0800h
AN: U21A-0804    [Abstracts]
TI: The Effect of Sensor Differences in Deriving Long-Term Trends from Satellite Passive Microwave Snow Extent and Snow Water Equivalent
AU: * Brodzik, M J
EM: brodzik@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow & Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Armstrong, R L
EM: rlax@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow & Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Knowles, K
EM: knowlesk@colorado.edu
AF: National Snow & Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Savoie, M H
EM: savoie@nsidc.org
AF: National Snow & Ice Data Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AB: The extent and variability of seasonal snow cover are important parameters in climate and hydrologic systems due to effects on energy and moisture budgets. Northern Hemisphere snow cover extent, comprising about 98 percent of global seasonal snow cover, is the largest single spatial component of the cryosphere, with a mean maximum extent of 47 million square kilometers (nearly 50 percent of the land surface area). Satellite passive microwave sensors have operated on polar orbiting platforms since 1978, providing a long-term record of snow water equivalent (SWE) and of snow extent that compares reasonably well with snow extent from visible-wavelength sensors. However, trend analysis on the passive microwave record is complicated by the change in passive microwave sensors from the Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR, operating from 1978 to 1987) to the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I, operating from 1987 to the present) and by the short overlap period between the sensors in July and August of 1987. We present analysis of land surface "stable" targets as detected by SMMR and SSM/I brightness temperatures during the overlap period to quantify possible discontinuities in sensor observations and derived snow extent and SWE. We include trend analysis of hemispheric and continental snow extent derived from passive microwave and visible-wavelength satellite data.
DE: 0736 Snow (1827, 1863)
DE: 0758 Remote sensing
DE: 0776 Glaciology (1621, 1827, 1863)
DE: 1621 Cryospheric change (0776)
SC: Union [U]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005