Evaluating snow depth in Western China based on passive microwave remote sensing

Abstract

In order to evaluate the accuracy of snow water equivalent (SWE) inversion algorithm for passive microwave sensor Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) in Western China, we compared SWE got from AMSR-E daily SWE product with the ground measurements from 15 meteorological stations in Tibetan plateau. The results show AMSR-E overestimate SWE in this regions and the RMSE is 21mm Tibetan plateau. Through incorporating snow fraction factor, a new empirical algorithm estimate snow depth and SWE have been developed in Tibet. This new algorithm appeared higher accuracy than AMSR-E. Due to complex topography, shallow patchy snow and frozen grounds covered at the Tibetan Plateau, this technique didn't show good results. In future we will focus on how to evaluate and eliminate the effects of these factors quantitatively on SWE retrieval.