1. Fractional snow cover estimation in the complex alpine-forested areas using MODIS and Landsat Elzbieta Czyzowska – Wisniewski research conducted under guidance of Dr. K. Hirschboeck

2. Why do we have to study winter precipitation and snow cover in the Southwest USA - winter precipitation and snow cover supply up to 90% of annual precipitation; - winter precipitation and snow cover is very sensitive to global climate change; - estimation of snow water equivalent (SWE) based on - estimation of snow water equivalent (SWE) based on instrumental data – remote sensing data complement sparse ground data; - estimation of snow cover and SWE is needed for better - estimation of snow cover and SWE is needed for better understanding of spatial and temporal variation of these elements in the decadal and century time scales;

3. 30 m GroundSatellite Remote sensing – introduction 30 m

4. Ground Satellite Present day snow classification < snow > non snow snow non snow non snow 30 m Normalized Difference Snow Index Snow detection – current methods: NDSI

5. Ikonos as a source information for snow cover monitoring 30 m Landsat Ikonos 1 m 4 m snow how much of the pixel is covered by snow ?

6. Ikonos as a source information for snow cover monitoring 30 m Landsat Ikonos 1 m 1 Landsat pixel (30m) = 900 Ikonos pixels (1m); 1 MODIS pixel (500m) = 278 Landsat pixels = 250 000 Ikonos forest road water house fresh snow old snow metamorphosed snow % snow cover

7. Ikonos Landsat TM/ETM+ classification map snow MODIS Terra/Aqua snow 10 m DEM ModisFSC snow GIS snow ANN1ANN1 / 4 / 4 ANN2ANN2 A –LandsatFSC development B – ModisFSC development C – Verification Ikonos classification map 30 m DEM ANN1 training ANN2 training LandsatFSC snow MODIS, Landsat NDSI NOHRSC, SNOTEL - panchromatic - visible - near infrared - shortwave infrared - thermal Legend: ANN2 parameters ANN1 parameters Landsat and MODIS fractional snow cover

8. IIa. Comparison of fractional snow area distribution with snow maps produced by: MODIS NDSI;Landsat NDSI; NOAA; SNOTEL ; Ikonos Landsat ETM+ snow MODIS Terra & Aqua snow DEM Fractional snow cover in mountain areas IV. SWE at 1 st April (1972 – 2007) snow IIb. Weekly and annual MODIS fractional snow cover distribution; 1972 1980 snow 2006 Models IIIa. Spatial and temporal changes of SWE based on MODIS fractional snow cover; Model 1972 1980 snow 2006 ANN & GIS V. Reconstruction of SWE and snow days (1400 – 2007); snow I. Neural network based fractional snow cover estimator Future plans: 2005 - 2008