Integrating passive microwave remotely sensed imagery and gridded atmospheric data, a study of North American Prairie snow cover

Abstract

Terrestrial snow cover is an important climatological variable because of its influence on the surface radiative balance, and a significant hydrological variable as it acts as the frozen storage term in the water balance. Characterizing regional snow cover patterns, and atmospheric triggers to their accumulation and ablation is therefore significant given the important role that snow cover plays in global energy and water cycles. Satellite passive-microwave imagery has been used as a source of snow cover information because of all-weather imaging capabilities, rapid scene revisit time, and the ability to derive quantitative estimates of snow water equivalent (SWE).