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Reconstructing snow water equivalent in the Rio Grande headwaters using remotely sensed snow cover data and a spatially distributed snowmelt model
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Molotch, Noah P. |
| Copyright Year | 2009 |
| Abstract | Snow covered area (SCA) observations from the Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) were used in combination with a distributed snowmelt model to estimate snow water equivalent (SWE) in the headwaters of the Rio Grande basin (3,419 km2) - a spatial scale that is an order of magnitude greater than previous reconstruction model applications. In this reconstruction approach, modeled snowmelt over each pixel is integrated over the time of ETM+ observed snow cover to estimate SWE. Considerable differences in the magnitude of SWE were simulated during the study. Basin-wide mean SWE was 2·6 times greater in April 2001 versus 2002. Despite these climatological differences, the model adequately recovered SWE at intensive study areas (ISAs); mean absolute SWE error was 23% relative to observed SWE. Reconstruction model SWE errors were within one standard deviation of the mean observed SWE over 37 and 55% of the four 16-km2 intensive field campaign study sites in 2001 and 2002, respectively; a result comparable to previous works at much smaller scales. A key strength of the technique is that spatially distributed SWE estimates are not dependent upon ground-based observations of SWE. Moreover, the model was relatively insensitive to the location of forcing observations relative to commonly used statistical SWE interpolation models. Hence, the reconstruction technique is a viable approach for obtaining high-resolution SWE estimates at larger scales (e.g. >1000 km2) and in locations where detailed hydrometeorological observations are scarce. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
| Starting Page | 1076 |
| Ending Page | 1089 |
| Page Count | 14 |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| DOI | 10.1002/hyp.7206 |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://hydrologydays.colostate.edu/Abstracts_06/Molotch_abs.pdf |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.7206 |
| Volume Number | 23 |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
