An empirical model for retrieving water equivalent of dry snow from C-band SAR data

Multifrequency polarimetric EMISAR data at C-band have been analyzed for retrieving snow water equivalent. The EMAC´95 snow test sites were located along a straight line in northern Finland extending from the coast (near the city of Oulu) to inland. The results indicate a positive correlation between the backscattering coefficient and the snow water equivalent for all polarizations at C-band. The development of an empirical model is presented to retrieve the snow water equivalent from the C-band EMISAR data in non-forested areas. The model provides good accuracy for retrieval of the water equivalent of dry snow