Abstract Snow cover over the Northern Hemisphere plays a crucial role in the Earth’s hydrology and surface energy balance, and modulates feedbacks that control variations of global climate. While many of these variations are associated with exchanges of energy and mass between the land surface and the atmosphere, other expected changes are likely to propagate downstream and affect oceanic processes in coastal zones. For example, a large component of the freshwater flux into the Arctic Ocean comes from snow melt. The timing and magnitude of this flux affects biological and thermodynamic processes in the Arctic Ocean, and potentially across the globe through their impact on North Atlantic Deep Water formation. Several recent global remotely sensed products provide information at unprecedented temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions. In this article we review the theoretical underpinnings and characteristics of three key products. We also demonstrate the seasonal and spatial patterns of agreement and disagreement amongst them, and discuss current and future directions in their application and development. Though there is general agreement amongst these products, there can be disagreement over certain geographic regions and under conditions of ephemeral, patchy and melting snow.
A review of global satellite-derived snow products
Advances in Space Research ; 50 , 8 ; 1007-1029
2011-01-01
23 pages
Aufsatz (Zeitschrift)
Elektronische Ressource
Englisch
A review of global satellite-derived snow products
Online Contents | 2012
|Satellite Snow-Cover Mapping: A Brief Review
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1995
|Satellite-derived snow cover maps for north America: Accuracy assessment
Online Contents | 2002
|Satellite-Derived Snow Cover Maps for North America: Accuracy Assessment
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2002
|An Analysis of the NOAA Satellite-Derived Snow-Cover Record, 1972 - Present
British Library Conference Proceedings | 1995
|