The Potential of COSMO-SkyMed SAR Images in Monitoring Snow Cover Characteristics

Author

Pettinato, S. ; Santi, E. ; Brogioni, M. ; Paloscia, S. ; Palchetti, E. ; Xiong, Chuan

Author_Institution

Inst. of Appl. Phys. of the Nat. Res. Council, Florence, Italy

Volume

10

Issue

1

fYear

2013

fDate

Jan. 2013

Firstpage

9

Lastpage

13

Abstract

Monitoring of snow cover is crucial to the study of global climate changes for water resource management, as well as for flood and avalanche risk prevention. The sensitivity to snow characteristics of X-band backscattering of COSMO-SkyMed mission has been analyzed in the framework of experimental and model activities. X-band data have been found to contribute to the retrieval of the snow water equivalent (SWE), provided that the snow cover is characterized by a snow depth (SD) of roughly 60-70 cm (SWE >; 100-150 mm) and with relatively large crystal dimensions. Subsequently, an algorithm for retrieving SD or SWE has been developed and tested with experimental data collected on several ground stations.

Keywords

backscatter; climatology; floods; geophysical image processing; geophysical techniques; radar imaging; remote sensing by radar; risk analysis; snow; synthetic aperture radar; water resources; COSMO-SkyMed SAR images; COSMO-SkyMed mission; X-band backscattering characteristics; X-band data; avalanche risk prevention; flood risk prevention; global climate changes; ground stations; snow cover characteristics; snow cover monitoring; snow depth characteristics; snow water equivalent; water resource management; Backscatter; Extraterrestrial measurements; Mathematical model; Monitoring; Remote sensing; Satellites; Snow; COSMO-SkyMed; snow; snow depth (SD); snow water equivalent (SWE);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1545-598X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LGRS.2012.2189752

Filename

6198863