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TitleEvaluation of multiple datasets for producing snow-cover indicators for Canada
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LicencePlease note the adoption of the Open Government Licence - Canada supersedes any previous licences.
AuthorFernandes, R AORCID logo; Zhou, F; Song, H
SourceGeomatics Canada, Open File 33, 2017, 30 pages, https://doi.org/10.4095/300853 Open Access logo Open Access
Year2017
PublisherNatural Resources Canada
Documentopen file
Lang.English
Mediaon-line; digital
File formatpdf
ProvinceCanada; British Columbia; Alberta; Saskatchewan; Manitoba; Ontario; Quebec; New Brunswick; Nova Scotia; Prince Edward Island; Newfoundland and Labrador; Northwest Territories; Yukon; Nunavut
NTS1; 2; 3; 10; 11; 12; 13; 14; 15; 16; 20; 21; 22; 23; 24; 25; 26; 27; 28; 29; 30; 31; 32; 33; 34; 35; 36; 37; 38; 39; 40; 41; 42; 43; 44; 45; 46; 47; 48; 49; 52; 53; 54; 55; 56; 57; 58; 59; 62; 63; 64; 65; 66; 67; 68; 69; 72; 73; 74; 75; 76; 77; 78; 79; 82; 83; 84; 85; 86; 87; 88; 89; 92; 93; 94; 95; 96; 97; 98; 99; 102; 103; 104; 105; 106; 107; 114O; 114P; 115; 116; 117; 120; 340; 560
Lat/Long WENS-141.0000 -50.0000 90.0000 41.7500
Subjectsenvironmental geology; geophysics; Nature and Environment; snow; climate; climatic fluctuations; ecosystems; remote sensing; satellite imagery; meteorology; field work; Climate change; Indicators
Illustrationstables; sketch maps; bar graphs; plots
ProgramClimate Change Geoscience Essential Climate Variable Monitoring
Released2017 06 30
AbstractSnow Cover is an essential climate variable. Indicators of trends in the temporal and spatial patterns of snow cover are increasingly used to both monitoring climate variability and change and quantifying regional environmental conditions. However, the choice and accuracy of the indicators are often determined by the input snow cover data. A survey of snow cover indicators is performed to identify both those that would satisfy user requirements over Canada in addition to the current practices for international reporting. Four different input data sets are then used to generate snow cover indicators over a five year period (2006-2010): the Canadian Meteorological Centre snow depth analysis with systematic in-situ measurements; cloud free MODIS MOD10C1 snow cover product; NOAA Interactive Mapping Service 4km snow cover product; and CCRS/CMC snow cover product that assimilated both CMC inputs and NOAA AVHRR satellite imagery. Then snow cover indicators, including snow cover onset and melt are evaluated through their sensitivity to documented data uncertainties, by comparison to continuous monitored in-situ sites, and through inter-comparison. Recommendations for suitable indicators as a function of input dataset are provided.
Summary(Plain Language Summary, not published)
Snow cover indicators are widely used for climate, ecosystem and hydrological studies. These indicators include the percentage of time snow cover is present during a season and the onset and melt dates. Snow cover or snow depth maps derived from satellite data or field data are now available across Canada, allowing the production of spatially explict snow cover indicators. This study compared snow cover indicators derived from four different map databases (CCRS, MODIS, NOAA , and CMC) over Canada at 4km resolution between 2006 and 2010. The comparison indicates systematic biases between datasets but with good agreement after biases are removed. This suggests that robust regional trends in snow cover indicators can be derived from available datasets. Longer term (>30 year) studies are required to verify this hypothesis but currently only the NOAA and CMC datasets exceed 15 years.
GEOSCAN ID300853

 
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