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Terrestrial Snow

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Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Among key parameters characterizing seasonal snow cover in cold land regions are snow area, extent, depth, water equivalent, accumulation onset, melt onset, ice layer, melt duration, and season length. Within an area p(i,j) that has a fractional snow cover of fS(i,j), the actual area that is fully covered by snow is sA(i,j) = fS(i,j) · p(i,j) at a location determined by indices i and j on the Earth’s surface. Then, the total snow area SA is the summation of all sA(i,j). Depending on the sensitivity, accuracy, and resolution of a satellite sensor, the existence of snow cover in p(ij) can be detected when sA(i,j) is sufficiently large. The composition of all areas p(i,j) where snow is detectable constitutes the snow extent SE, which is smaller than SA unless snow fully covers all snow areas sA(i,j).

Over area p(i,j), the snow volume is calculated as vS(i,j) = da(i,j) · p(i,j) where da(i,j) is the average snow depth in area p(i,j), including the snow-free fraction [1 − fS(i,j)...

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Acknowledgments

The research carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Terrestrial Hydrology Program and by the US Air Force (USAF) under an agreement with NASA. The research at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center was also supported by the USAF. The authors would like to thank Janet Y. L. Chien for preparing Figure 1 and D. Cline of NOAA NOHRSC for the NSA SWE data at Yellowstone.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA

    Son V. Nghiem & Gregory Neumann

  2. Cryospheric Sciences Laboratory, Code 615, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    Dorothy K. Hall

  3. Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, Code 617, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA

    James L. Foster

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  1. Son V. Nghiem
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA

    Eni G. Njoku

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Nghiem, S.V., Hall, D.K., Foster, J.L., Neumann, G. (2014). Terrestrial Snow. In: Njoku, E.G. (eds) Encyclopedia of Remote Sensing. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-36699-9_171

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