Abstract
The geophysical properties of snow are essential to study the mountain snow/glacier system and can be used as an indicator for any related hazard. In this study, an attempt has been made to model the geophysical properties of snow, such as dielectric, density, and wetness using the Sentinel–1 dual-polarized SLC product. A state-of-the-art inversion model has been developed using Sentinel–1 derived stokes parameters to estimate snow dielectric and subsequently used to model density and wetness employing Looyega's and Denoth's equations. The proposed inclusion of stokes parameters in the inversion model has significantly predicted the results. The respective modeled and in-situ snow dielectric, density, and wetness show a good coefficient of determination (R2 > 0.7) with 95% confidence. Utilizing the field-measured values, the estimated root mean squared error (RMSE) of snow dielectric, density, and wetness, is 0.26, 0.08 g/cm3, and 0.84, respectively. The comparison of the proposed model with some of the existing models reflects its good efficiency in predicting the snow geophysical parameters.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to European Space Agency (ESA) and Copernicus Open Access Hub for their extraordinary efforts to make the data available for the current study. The authors also express their gratitude to the Institute of Technology Guwahati, Forest Department of the state of Sikkim, and Defence Research and Development Organisation, Ministry of Defence of the Government of India for the required permissions to visit the study area and facilitate the research activities. The authors acknowledge the help of Mrs Ritu Anilkumar, Mr Sandeep Kumar Mondal, and Mr Shiv Sahay Shukla during the field visit.
Funding
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the Defence Geoinformatics Research Establishment, DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Government of India under the project code CESPNDTRL01140xRIB004.
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Manmit Kumar Singh and Rishikesh Bharti conceived the study. Manmit Kumar Singh performed the analysis. Manmit Kumar Singh and Rishikesh Bharti wrote the manuscript.
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Singh, M.K., Bharti, R. Inversion model for snow geophysical parameters estimation using sentinel–1 stokes parameter. Earth Sci Inform 16, 1585–1595 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-023-00984-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-023-00984-y