Currently, the MODIS instrument on the Aqua satellite has a number of broken detectors resulting in unreliable data for 1.6 micron band (band 6) measurements. Damaged detectors, transmission errors, and electrical failure are all vexing but seemingly unavoidable problems leading to line drop and data loss. Standard interpolation can often provide an acceptable solution if the loss is sparse. In...

Snow-covered area (SCA) is a key variable in the Snowmelt-Runoff Model (SRM) and in other models for simulating discharge from snowmelt. Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM + ) or Operational Land Imager (OLI) provide remotely sensed data at an appropriate spatial resolution for mapping SCA in small headwater basins, but the temporal resolution of the data is low and may...

The objective of this study is to propose and evaluate a method for snow cover mapping during clouds using the daily MODIS/Terra snow cover product. The proposed SNOWL approach is based on reclassifying pixels assigned as clouds to snow or land according to their relative position to the regional snow-line elevation. The accuracy of the SNOWL approach is evaluated over Austria, using daily snow...

[1] Seasonal variations of snow cover fraction (SFC) over the Tibet Plateau (TP) are examined using the data acquired from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra spacecraft. In this study, we first evaluate the accuracy of the MODIS high-resolution snow cover data by comparing the data with in-situ Chinese snow observations. Results show that overall accuracy of ...

Moderate-resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow-cover products have relatively low accuracy over the Tibetan Plateau because of its complex terrain and shallow, fragmented snow cover. In this study, fractional snow-cover (FSC) mapping algorithms were developed using a linear regression model (LR), a linear spectral mixture analysis model (LSMA) and a back-propagation artificial neura...

Accurate mapping of snow cover continues to challenge cryospheric scientists and modelers. The Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) snow data products have been used since 2000 by many investigators to map and monitor snow cover extent for various applications. Users have reported on the utility of the products and also on problems encountered. Three problems or hindrances in t...

Over the period from February 24-28, 2003, the albedo of two partially snow-covered sites in northwestern Iowa was characterized to validate snow albedos retrieved from data collected by NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. Below average snowfall provided the opportunity to evaluate the accuracy of snow albedos retrievals from the current MODIS snow-albedo al...

The detection of clouds within a satellite image is essential for retrieving surface geophysical parameters from optical and thermal imagery. Even a small percentage of cloud cover within a radiometer pixel can adversely affect the determination of surface variables such as albedo and temperature. Thus, onboard processing of satellite data requires reliable automated cloud detection algorithms ...