SWE monitoring during the winter and spring melt by combining microwaves remote sensing data, modeling and ground data

Snow water equivalent is a key variable for hydrological modeling. For Hydro-Québec, the water contains within the snowpack represents more than 30% of its annual energy reserve. This is even more important since 97% of Hydro-Québec´s power production is hydroelectric. Knowing the maximum snow water equivalent value is crucial to determine the amount of potential energy that the snow melting will provide during the spring. In order to optimise the level water stock in the reservoirs and the hydropower generation for all Hydro-Québec´s watersheds, the monitoring of spring runoff must be done adequately in near real time. To improve monitoring snow properties during both winter and springs seasons, a methodology based on a model inversion scheme is coupled with a simple density model. The first results show that the methodology can quantify adequately the snow accumulation and snowmelt.