A review of global satellite-derived snow products

TY - JOUR

T1 - A review of global satellite-derived snow products

AU - Frei, Allan

AU - Tedesco, Marco

AU - Lee, Shihyan

AU - Foster, James

AU - Hall, Dorothy K.

AU - Kelly, Richard

AU - Robinson, David A.

N1 - Funding Information: Frei is supported by the NASA Cryospheric Sciences Program award #NNX08AQ70G, and began work on this article while on sabbatical leave at the Climate Research Division of Environment Canada in Downsview, Ontario. M. Tedesco is supported by NASA Grant # NNX08AI02G. D. Robinson acknowledges funding support from NASA MEaSUREs award NNX08AP34A and NOAA Climate Program Office awards EA133E10SE2623 and NA08AR4310678. Two anonymous reviewers made valuable contributions to, and helped clarify, our manuscript; and we thank T. Estilow and Jeff Miller for contributions to the figures.

PY - 2012/10/15

Y1 - 2012/10/15

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Remote sensing

KW - Snow

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U2 - 10.1016/j.asr.2011.12.021

DO - 10.1016/j.asr.2011.12.021

M3 - Article

SN - 0273-1177

VL - 50

SP - 1007

EP - 1029

JO - Advances in Space Research

JF - Advances in Space Research

IS - 8

ER -