Estimation of snow water equivalence using SIR-C/X-SAR

In hydrological investigations, modeling and forecasting of snow melt runoff requires information about snowpack properties and their spatial variability. This study demonstrates the capabilities of the SIR-C/X-SAR, a multi-frequency and multi-polarization spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), on deriving snow water equivalence. In contrast to a single-polarization SAR, this study shows that SIR-C/X-SAR has the capabilities to estimate snow water equivalence when snow is dry