Abstract

Evident climatic variability of the snow cover has been discovered by long-term observations at Valday, north-western Russia. There are decreasing the snow water equivalent and the mean snow melt intensity along with highly variable, generally increasing the liquid (rainfall) precipitation during the snow melt period. Problem has been highlighted on how to validate the satellite-based observation data, and what is to be assumed as the ground "true" data. Two techniques are developed to facilitate analysis of the snow survey data: (1) kriging, an optimal interpolation as improved with allowance for relief and (2) statistical description of the snow water contents along with landscape analysis. Among other things, these methods are to be used for retrieval of the snow cover spatial distribution at two spatial scales: throughout river watersheds and several square miles. They have allowed to validate, respectively, the passive micro-wave data of coarse spatial resolution and, more detailed, the visual and infra-red satellite sensors data. At least two applications resulted are reported: (1) studies aimed to improve the snow melt flood prediction and (2) modeling the local snow cover distribution to be used for construction engineering in cold regions.

http://www.GlobalWarming.net

Hydrosphere © 1990 — 2005 Vladimir A. Shutov
Design by Timothy (Azs) Shutov © 2001