ERS-1 SAR data, airborne data and in situ snow data were acquired for the Sodankylä test site in northern Finland for the winters of 1991–1992 and 1992–1993. The test area consists of sparsely forested areas (pine, mixed forests, and mires) and open areas (bogs, lakes, clear-cut areas, and urban area). A set of multitemporal ERS-1 SAR images covering the two winters have been analyzed and the r...

Knowledge on the spatial and temporal distribution of snow depth is one of the key parameter in the assessment of avalanche hazards, for snow drift and avalanche modelling and model verification. Reliable measurements of snow depth distribution are of interest for practitioners as well as for scientists. Most of the conventional methods like snow pits, probing or profiling deliver point informa...

Surface hoar crystals are commonon the surface ofmountain snowcovers.Onceburied, layers of large plate-shaped surface hoar crystals are prone to releasing dangerous snow-slab avalanches. Since snow microstructure influences the optical properties of snow, remote sensors could potentially detect the formation of surface hoar and other snow types associated with avalanche release. The spectral re...

[1] This study analyzes diurnal and seasonal variations of snow albedo at four Baseline Surface Radiation Network stations in the Arctic and Antarctica from 2003 to 2008 to elucidate similarities and differences in snow albedo diurnal cycles across geographic zones and to assess how diurnal changes in snow albedo affect the surface energy budget. At the seasonal scale, the daily albedo for the ...

We present the first application of a distributed snow model (SnowModel) in the instrumented site of Pascua-Lama in the Dry Andes (2600-5630 m above sea level, 29◦ S). A model experiment was performed to assess the effect of wind on the snow cover patterns. A particular objective was to evaluate the role of blowing snow on the glacier formation. The model was run using the data from 11 weather ...

A snow-covered forest mapping method for optical remote sensing is proposed. The method is based on linear sub-pixel reflectance modelling of the surface components snow, individual tree species and bare ground. Experiments are performed using a 100% snow-covered Landsat TM scene and aerial photos covering spruce, pine and birch forest in the Jotunheimen mountain area of South Norway. The refle...

The L-band radiometry data and in-situ ground and snow measurements performed during the 2016/2017 winter campaign at the Davos-Laret remote sensing field laboratory are presented and discussed. An improved version of the procedure for the computation of L-band brightness temperatures from ELBARA radiometer raw data is introduced. This procedure includes a thorough explanation of the calibratio...

geographic information and analysis provide a wide range of data and techniques to monitor and manage natural resources. as an important case, in arid and semi-arid areas, water management is critical for both local governance and citizens. as a result, the estimation of water potential brought by snowmelt runoff and rainfalls seems to be very useful and important for these areas. hydrological ...

We examine the molecular dynamics of crystal growth in the presence of surface melting and surface impurities, and from this propose a detailed microscopic model for the growth of ice from the vapor phase. Our model naturally accounts for many aspects of the experimental data that are otherwise difficult to explain, and it suggests a variety of measurements that can provide further confirmation...

Although remote sensing data are often plentiful, they do not usually satisfy the users’ needs directly. Data assimilation is required to extract information about geophysical fields of interest from the remote sensing observations and to make the data more accessible to users. Remote sensing may provide, for example, measurements of surface soil moisture, snow water equivalent, snow cover, or ...