ABSTRACT
Snowpack or snow-covered area (SCA) is an important component of the hydrologic cycle, especially in mountainous basins where the majority of water originates from snowmelt. Basins with snowmelt water, such as the Western United States and the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding areas, are a source of major water resources for agriculture, residential, industry, and many other needs. Due to its high albedo, snow cover (SC) is one of the key variables impacting the Earth’s energy balance. Snow is also an excellent insulator because of its low thermal conductivity. Therefore, accurate mapping SC and/or snow water equivalent (SWE) have been a major task of the remote sensing community. Using its unique high spectral signature, snow can be relatively easy to be separated from other types of land cover (Brubaker et al., 2005; Simic et al., 2004). However, the accuracy of SC mapping techniques is affected by variables such as the sensor’s spectral resolution, snow depth on the ground, cloud cover, and forest canopy (Hall et al., 1998; Vikhamar and Solberg, 2002). The importance of SC products as a substitute for ground stations/sensors is especially underscored in large areas where the ground station density is sparse or inaccessibility of the terrain due to the remoteness of the region and large spatial extent.
