Snow cover plays a crucial role in surface hydrology and energy balance, especially in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP). This study used 12 years (2000–2011) of ground-observed snow depth at 87 meteorological stations to assess and verify the accuracy of the daily cloud-free snow-cover product from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) over the QTP. On average, the daily cl...

18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 Snow density is a key property in monitoring the water content of snow-covered regions. However, sampling snow density is a difficult and time consuming task, which explains why few previous studies have analyzed the spatial variability of snow density. In this study we analyzed snow density measurements made in February...

This paper presents a study to demonstrate the potential of a spaceborne u-band scatterometer to monitor global snow cover. Global u-band data were acquired by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Scatterometer (NSCAT) operated on the Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS) from September 1996 to June 1997. NSCAT backscatter patterns over the northern hemisphere reveals b...

The classification of snow profiles is traditionally based on the discrete interpretation of snow layers in a snow pack. The layers are discriminated according to the physical properties of the snow. To account for the micro-mechanical behaviour of snow in deformation, the classification needs to be extended to the micro-structure of snow. A new instrument, the high-resolution snow penetrometer...

Levels of neutral poly-/perfluoroalkyl substances (nPFASs) in air and snow collected from Ny-Ålesund were measured and their air-snow exchange was determined to investigate whether they could re-volatilize into the atmosphere driven by means of air-snow exchange. The total concentration of 12 neutral PFASs ranged from 6.7 to 39 pg m(-3) in air and from 330 to 690 pg L(-1) in snow. A significant...