SAR capabilities for alpine hydrology

Author

Floricioiu, D. ; Nagler, T. ; Rott, H.

Author_Institution

Inst. fur Meteorol. und Geophys., Innsbruck Univ., Austria

Volume

4

fYear

1999

fDate

1999

Firstpage

2149

Abstract

Applications of SAR data for monitoring snow extent and soil moisture in alpine basins are investigated. The studies are based on C-band data from ERS SAR and Radarsat SAR from 1996 to 1998 and on polarimetric SIR-C/X-SAR data from April and October 1994. An algorithm for mapping wet snow is described which applies change detection technique to repeat pass SAR images. Effects of different look angles are studied using ERS SAR data (look angle 19°) and Radarsat SAR Beam Mode S7 (look angle 40°) data. In a case study the temporal change of the snow extent during the melting season 1998 is derived for a drainage basin in the Alps. Time series of C-band backscatter of alpine surface classes are studied to investigate the capabilities for monitoring soil moisture changes

Keywords

backscatter; hydrological techniques; moisture measurement; radar cross-sections; remote sensing by radar; snow; soil; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; AD 1994; AD 1996; AD 1997; AD 1998; Alps; C-band; Radarsat; SAR; SHF; X-SAR; algorithm; alpine basin; alpine hydrology; backscatter; capability; change detection; hydrology; look angle; measurement technique; mountainous area; polarimetric SIR-C; radar polarimetry; radar remote sensing; repeat pass; snow cover; snow extent; snowcover; snowpack; soil moisture; spaceborne radar; synthetic aperture radar; terrain mapping; wet snow; Backscatter; Hydrology; Meteorology; Monitoring; Satellites; Snow; Soil measurements; Soil moisture; Surface topography; Vegetation mapping;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 1999. IGARSS '99 Proceedings. IEEE 1999 International

Conference_Location

Hamburg

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5207-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.1999.775059

Filename

775059