HR: 14:40h
AN: H23H-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Estimating snow depth, snow water equivalent, and stratigraphy at high resolution using microwave radar
AU: * Marshall, H
EM: marshalh@colorado.edu
AF: Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, 1560 30th St, Boulder, CO 80303, United States
AU: Koh, G
AF: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, 72 Lyme Road, Hanover, NH 03755, United States
AU: Sturm, M
AF: Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, P.O. Box 35170, Ft. Wainwright, AK 99703, United States
AU: Rutter, N
AF: University of Sheffield, Department of Geography, Sheffield, S10 2TN, United Kingdom
AB: Snow water equivalent (SWE) estimates are a critical component of the hydrological system in cold terrestrial environments, yet our ability to estimate SWE accurately over large areas remains limited. Point measurements of SWE at automatic weather stations (e.g. SNOTEL sites) and manual snowpit measurements are costly, time consuming and difficult to interpolate between, primarily due to the large variability that often exists in snow properties over short distances (< 10 m). Microwave remote sensing offers a promising alternative as large spatial coverage and high temporal resolution can be achieved, however, interpretation of SWE from microwave sensors remains problematic. This is largely due to the difficulty in obtaining ground-truth measurements at a sufficient resolution and scale within air- and space-borne instrument footprints for testing and improving SWE retrieval algorithms. Ground-based microwave radar measurements were used to estimate snow depth, SWE and stratigraphy during recent, intensive, remote sensing ground-truth campaigns in Colorado (NASA Cold Lands Processes Experiment (CLPX) I (2002/03) and II (2006-07)) and Alaska (NASA AMSR-Ice06). These sampling campaigns were coincident with active and passive, air- and space-borne microwave measurements, and covered a wide range of snow conditions. Ground-based radar, due to its relatively small antenna footprint, allows ground-truth measurements of snow depth, SWE, and stratigraphy within the footprint to be well-characterized using traditional manual in-situ methods. These manual measurements, covering a wide range of snow conditions throughout 3 major campaigns are used to quantify the accuracy of estimating snow depth and SWE from the radar measurement. Due to the very high sample rate, these radar-derived snow depth and SWE estimates can be made several orders of magnitude faster than with traditional techniques. These high-resolution data, covering length scales from centimeters to kilometers, provide key information for understanding the spatial distribution and variation of snow depth, SWE and stratigraphy, in a wide range of environments.
DE: 1855 Remote sensing (1640)
DE: 1863 Snow and ice (0736, 0738, 0776, 1827)
DE: 1895 Instruments and techniques: monitoring
DE: 3252 Spatial analysis (0500)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting