Estimating Regional Snow Line Elevation Using Public Webcam Images

Snow cover is of high relevance for the Earth’s climate system, and its variability plays a key role in alpine hydrology, ecology, socioeconomic systems. Measurements obtained by optical satellite remote sensing are an essential source quantifying snow from local to global scale. However, temporal resolution such measurements often affected persistent cloud coverage, limiting application mapping. In this study, we derive regional line elevation catchment area using public webcams. We compare our results information derived Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Sentinel-2 products find be good agreement therewith. Between October 2017 end June 2018, lines webcams lie on average 55.8 m below 33.7 above MODIS normalized-difference index (NDSI) 0.4 0.1, respectively, 53.1 Sentinel-2. further analyze superior webcam-based demonstrate effectiveness filling gaps satellite-based caused cover. Our findings show ability retrieval complement improve measurements.