Estimating snow depth or snow water equivalent from space  

作　　者：LiYun Dai Tao Che 

机构地区：[1]Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing of Gansu Province,Heihe Remote Sensing Experimental Research Station,Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Lanzhou,Gansu 730000,China [2]Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences,Chinese Academy of Sciences,Beijing 100101,China

出　　处：《Research in Cold and Arid Regions》2022年第2期79-90,共12页寒旱区科学（英文版）

基　　金：supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China(Grand No.2020YFA0608501);the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grand No.42171143);the CAS’Light of West China’Program(E029070101)

摘　　要：Satellite remote sensing is widely used to estimate snow depth and snow water equivalent(SWE)which are two key parameters in global and regional climatic and hydrological systems.Remote sensing techniques for snow depth mainly include passive microwave remote sensing,Synthetic Aperture Radar(SAR),Interferometric SAR(In SAR)and Lidar.Among them,passive microwave remote sensing is the most efficient way to estimate large scale snow depth due to its long time series data and high temporal frequency.Passive microwave remote sensing was utilized to monitor snow depth starting in 1978 when Nimbus-7 satellite with Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer(SMMR)freely provided multi-frequency passive microwave data.SAR was found to have ability to detecting snow depth in 1980 s,but was not used for satellite active microwave remote sensing until 2000.Satellite Lidar was utilized to detect snow depth since the later period of 2000 s.The estimation of snow depth from space has experienced significant progress during the last 40 years.However,challenges or uncertainties still exist for snow depth estimation from space.In this study,we review the main space remote sensing techniques of snow depth retrieval.Typical algorithms and their principles are described,and problems or disadvantages of these algorithms are discussed.It was found that snow depth retrieval in mountainous area is a big challenge for satellite remote sensing due to complicated topography.With increasing number of freely available SAR data,future new methods combing passive and active microwave remote sensing are needed for improving the retrieval accuracy of snow depth in mountainous areas.

关 键 词：snow depth snow water equivalent remote sensing SATELLITE 

分 类 号：P407[天文地球—大气科学及气象学]