Mapping of Snow Water Equivalent and Snow Coverage from Combined EO and in situ Data for Climatic Studies and Hydrological Forecasting Models

Information on physical snow cover characteristics, such as snow water equivalent (SWE) and the areal coverage fraction of snow covered area (SCA), can be obtained from space-borne remote sensing data. The feasible instruments include optical spectrometers and microwave radars (SCA mapping), and microwave radiometers (SWE mapping). As data assimilation techniques are applied, the EO data-derived information can improve the performance of river discharge forecasting models and the knowledge on snow climatology. The results discussed here indicate that the assimilation of EO data-based SCA estimates to hydrological modeling significantly improves the accuracy of operational river discharge forecasts. The results also indicate that the employment of space-borne microwave radiometer data using the data assimilation technique improves the SWE or snow depth mapping accuracy when compared with the use of values interpolated from synoptic observations.