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SUMMARY:Radar Remote Sensing of Snowpack
DTSTART:20140210T110000
DTSTAMP:20260510T001457Z
UID:a794fea0c2d1f650177c7cad9fa78c14b22ce7ecebdc69f85e701aa0
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Chung-Chi Lin\, European Space Agency\nSnow-Water-Equivalent 
 (SWE) of snowpack is a critical parameter for the quantitative characteris
 ation of land hydrological cycle\, but is not retrieved by existing satell
 ite remote sensing techniques which only provide information on snow cover
  extent. Existing knowledge of SWE comes from passive microwave radiometer
 s\, but these measurements are challenging to interpret\, are very limited
  in their spatial resolution ( a few tens of kilometres) and do not allow 
 retrieval over deep  snowpack. A satellite synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
  mission could potentially deliver global coverage of snow-covered regions
  at an unprecedented high spatial resolution if operated at frequencies wh
 ich are sensitive to snowpack.\nA precise knowledge of the radar signature
  of snowpack is a pre-requisite towards quantitative retrieval of their ph
 ysical parameters using SAR imagery from space. In view of the limited ava
 ilability in the literature of radar scattering information of snowpack at
  X-band and above\, the European Space Agency (ESA) has initiated experime
 nts using a mast-mounted scatterometer. The objective of the measurements 
 is to establish accurate data of snowpack scattering from X-  to Ku-band 
 together with relevant snowpack and meteorological parameters\, continuous
 ly over complete snow seasons with a high temporal resolution.\nESAs SnowS
 cat instrument is a real aperture scatterometer which was developed by Gam
 ma Remote Sensing AG. It operates in a continuous wave mode\, covers a fre
 quency range of 9.15 (X-band) to 17.9 GHz (Ku-band) in a user-defined  fr
 equency-step and have a polarimetric capability. The measurement campaigns
  were started first in Feb. 2009 at Weissfluhjoch\, Davos\, Switzerland\, 
 as an initial test of the instrument. Physical characterisations of the sn
 owpack as well as  meteorological instrumentation provide detailed in-sit
 u data for the interpretation of the SnowScat data. SnowScat was then move
 d to Sodankylä in Finland\, a site of the Finnish Meteorological Institut
 e in Lapland. In addition to the in-situ snowpack characterisations and me
 teorological observations\, continuous passive microwave observations and 
 direct measurements of the snow water equivalent using a Gamma Wave Instru
 ment were also performed. During the 2012-2013 winter period\, a vertical 
 time-domain snow profiling experiment was carried out in addition for reso
 lving the scattering contributions from the snow layers of different physi
 cal properties.\nThe SnowScat data set represents one of the most complete
 \, detailed and accurate active microwave observation time-series of speci
 fic snowpacks at a local scale. This paper summarises the result of the Sn
 owScat observations and their preliminary analysis against the in-situ sno
 wpack data. The campaign data show that snowpack is a highly variable rada
 r target at the SnowScat frequencies\, showing strong dependency on contin
 uous snow metamorphism of its microscopic structure which are further affe
 cted by meteorological events and their inter-annual variability. There ap
 pears to be no simple one-to-one relationship between the scattering radar
  cross-section and the snow depth\, or its snow water equivalent.\nLEMA (L
 aboratory of Electromagnetics and Acoustics)
LOCATION:ELG 120 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=ELG120
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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