Determination of snow water equivalent over eastern part of Turkey using passive microwave data

Date

2011

Author

Beşer, Özgür

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The assimilation process to produce daily Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) maps is modified by using Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) snow emission model and AMSR-E passive microwave data. The characteristics of HUT emission model is analyzed in-depth and discussed with respects to the extinction coefficient function. A new extinction coefficient function for the HUT model is proposed for snow over mountainous areas. Performance of the modified model is checked against original and other modified cases against ground truth data covering 2003-2007 winter periods. A new approach to calculate grain size and density is integrated inside the developed data assimilation process. An extensive validation is successfully carried out by means of snow data measured at ground stations during 2008-2010 winter periods. Validation results were less satisfactory for SWE smaller than 75.0 mm and greater than 200.0 mm. Overestimation is especially observed for stations located below 1750.0 m elevation where SWE is less than 75.0 mm. Applied methodology is fine tuned to improve its performance for shallow snow depths observed below 1750 m elevation using a relationship that integrates 10.7 GHz channel data. But an underestimation for SWE greater than 150 mm could not beresolved due to microwave signal saturation that is expected in dense snowpack.

Subject Keywords

Snow

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12613620/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/20758

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis