Evaluation of stereology for snow microstructure measurement and microwave emission modeling: a case study

Reliable microstructure measurement of snow is a requirement for microwave radiative transfer model validation. Snow specific surface area (SSA) can be measured using stereological methods, in which samples are cast the field and photographed laboratory. Processing stereology photographs manually by counting intersections test cycloids with air–ice boundaries reduces problems binary segmentation. This paper case study to evaluate repeatability interpretation two independent research groups. We further assessed how uncertainty SSA influences simulated brightness temperature (TB) driven Microwave Emission Model Layered Snowpacks (MEMLS), compares Near Infrared (NIR) camera hand lens. Data was obtained from alpine profiles Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Results showed that values groups highly consistent, ground radiometer TB at 19 37 GHz successfully predicted (RMSE<3.8 K); simulations NIR hand-lens geometric grain size (Dg) measurements have larger errors. conclusion not sensitive free parameters modeling.