Runo€ in glacierized alpine basins results from both seasonal snow cover and glacier melt. In this paper we present a case study for an improved runo€ modelling of the basin Massa-Blatten, 196 km, 1447±4191 m a.s.l. Using high resolution satellite sensors, it is possible to separately map snow cover and glacier areas. From the satellite data we derive depletion curves of snow covered areas in s...

Runoff in glacierized alpine basins results from the seasonal snow cover and from the glacier melt. Due to high resolution satellite sensors, it is possible to map snow cover and glacier areas in the basin of Massa-Blatten, 196 km2, 1447 4191 m a.s.l. Depletion curves of snow covered areas were derived in six elevation zones. In addition, the date was determined when the glacierice became expos...

Snow cover is one of the crucial factors influencing the plant distribution in harsh Arctic regions. In tundra environments, wind redistribution of snow leads to a very heterogeneous spatial distribution which influences growth conditions for plants. Therefore, relationships between snow cover and vegetation should be analyzed spatially. In this study, we correlate spatial data sets on tundra v...

In the present paper, the inter-seasonal Hg variability in snow cover was examined based on multivariate statistical analysis of chemical and meteorological data. Samples of freshly fallen snow cover were collected at the semi-urban site in Poznań (central Poland), during 3-month field measurements in winter 2013. It was showed that concentrations of atmospherically deposited Hg were highly var...

We have developed a new approach based on modelling and assimilation to combine SAR and optical data for snow cover area mapping. SAR data would typically be acquired a few times a week, while optical data is acquired daily but is limited by cloud cover. The algorithm we use analyses the current time series to estimate the current Fractional Snow Cover (FSC) per pixel. A set of snow states is d...

a r t i c l e i n f o A multitemporal method to map snow cover in mountainous terrain is proposed to guide Landsat climate data record (CDR) development. The Landsat image archive including MSS, TM, and ETM + imagery was used to construct a prototype Landsat snow cover CDR for the interior northwestern United States. Landsat snow cover CDRs are designed to capture snow-covered area (SCA) variab...

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 presence of snow cover has significant impacts on the both global and regional climate and water balance on earth. The accurate estimation of snow cover area can be used for forecasting runoff due to snow melt and output of hydroelectric power. With development of remote sensing techniques at different scopes in earth science, enormous algorithms for retrieval hydrometeor parameters have be...

The runoff regime of high alpine basins will be affected in response to global warming not only by the seasonal snow cover but also by glaciers. Runoff peaks due to snowmelt will partially be shifted from the summer to the winter. The glacier melt will supply a higher amount of meltwater until glaciers finally disappear, if the temperature keeps rising. In order to evaluate quantitatively this ...

The full polarimetric L-band ALOS-PALSAR data of snow cover area in Himalayan region have been analyzed based on various component scattering mechanism models and all model results are compared. Various polarimetric descriptors (Viz. degree of polarization, co-polarization coherence, total power, phase difference, polarization fraction) are also applied for snow discrimination. Based on these t...